Students Guide

Medical SchoolsAt OXFORD UNIVERSITY the preclinical entry is

76 per year (65 men and 11 women). The clinical schooladmits 32 students a year, most of whom come from the

preclinical departments of the university, but some areadmitted from other universities. These students mayread for the degree of their own university or if theyhave spent three years in an approved university, passedthe equivalent of the Oxford anatomy and physiologyexamination, and taken an honours degree in the arts orsciences, for the Oxford B.M.Prof. Sir George Pickering took up office as regius profes-

sorofmedicine in October, 1956, a new department havingbeen built for him in the Radcliffe Infirmary. The newdepartment for the Nuffield professor of surgery, Prof.P. R. Allison, is almost completed. This will consistof twin theatres and laboratories above two existingwards in the Radcliffe Infirmary, which are being con-verted to meet the professor’s special requirements. Thenew department for the Numeld professor of clinicalmedicine will be completed this year. Plans have beenapproved for new departments of anaesthetics, bio-chemistry, and pathology and a new outpatient depart-ment ; and a start has been made on the extension of theX-ray department. Even with the development of thenew academic departments of teaching and researchand the provision of an increased number of teachingbeds in the Radcliffe Infirmary, the university does notintend to increase the size of the clinical school. Itsaim will still be to provide the maximum amount ofindividual instruction, and to give the student directaccess to a large number of patients during his training.The system of attachment to an individual tutor whichhas long been an integral part of the preclinical courseat Oxford is continued throughout the student’s clinicaltraining. This traditional tutorial system is consideredto be one of the most valuable parts of the curriculum.

At the UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE the number ofcandidates wishing to study medicine continues to exceedthe number of places available (about 220 per annum),and all college entries are subject to a university quota.During the year two changes have been made in theregulations for the final JBI.B. examination. The firstrelates to the period of clinical instruction in midwiferyand gynaecology. The regulations are amended so asto specify requirements of (a) six months’ instead of threemonths’ clinical training ; (b) two months’ instead ofone month’s residence in a maternity hospital ; (c)instruction in antenatal and postnatal care. Studentswho began their clinical training before Oct. 1, 1956,however, will be allowed to proceed to the final M.B.examination on producing evidence satisfying themidwifery and gynaecology requirements previouslyin force. The second change is designed to permit under-graduates who by the end of their second year’s residencehave obtained honours in the natural sciences triposand have qualified in anatomy and physiology and whowish to undertake a course of non-medical study duringthe third year in Cambridge, to take the final M.B.examination at the same time as their contemporarieswho devote three years to the tripos and qualifyingexaminations. The requirement that a candidate foreither part of the final M.B. examination shall produceevidence of having completed five years of medical studyhas been amended to restrict the requirement to part IIonly of that examination. The Cambridge medicalstudent normally completes three of these five years asan undergraduate in residence and on Oct. 1 followinggraduation begins clinical studies at a recognised hos-pital. If, in the circumstances mentioned, the thirdyear is devoted to non-medical study the student willbegin hospital training with two years’ medical studyonly to his credit, but will be allowed to count as partof his third year of medical study after graduation the

period of three months during which he attends the long-vacation course in elementary clinical methods. He willthen be able to take part I of the final M.B. (pathology andpharmacology) in the December of his third academicalyear at hospital and part II (medicine, surgery, andmidwifery and gynaecology) in the following June, ifhe begins hospital training in the July immediatelyfollowing his qualification for the B.A. degree eitherin his clinical school or by taking the long-vacationcourse in clinical methods in Cambridge.

LONDON SCHOOLS

LONDON UNIVERSITY bears a different relation to itsmedical faculty from other universities : whereas theyhave one school of medicine each, London has twelveautonomous schools, each of which is closely linked withone of the teaching hospitals, as well as University, King’s,and Queen Mary Colleges, all of which take medicalstudents for some part of the preclinical course. All themedical schools are now open to men and women students.

At UNIVERSITY COLLEGE, which has the largestpreclinical teaching and research staff in London, medicalstudents taking the preclinical course come into closecontact with students in other faculties, particularly withscience students and research-workers who are specialis-ing in anatomy, physiology, biochemistry, and pharma-cology. Every encouragement is given to students whopass the 2nd M.B. examination with credit to spend anextra year’s study for the B.sc. (special) degree in anatomyor physiology. Scholarships and exhibitions supplementedby the Ministry of Education are available for at least12 students each year to take the B.SC. course. Thisprovides an admirable introduction to research methodsand outlook, useful to the medical graduate in the clinicalas well as the preclinical fields. The first stage of thenew biochemistry building in Gower Street is expectedto be ready this autumn and the second stage later inthe session. The accommodation vacated by the bio-chemists will provide for the expansion of the physiologyand pharmacology departments and the teaching andresearch resources of those departments will thereby begreatly strengthened. Students accepted for the fullmedical course receive their clinical training at UniversityCollege Hospital Medical School. The dean of the facultyof medical sciences is Prof. F. R. Winton.

KING’S COLLEGE provides courses for the 1st M.B. and2nd M.B. examinations of the University of London.Applications for admission to the faculty of medicalscience in October, 1958, should be made at once, andcertainly not later than the end of October, 1957. Appli-cants for admission in 1959 are advised to apply betweenApril and October, 1958. The students of King’s Collegeundertake their clinical studies at either King’s CollegeHospital Medical School, St. George’s Hospital MedicalSchool, or Westminster Medical School, and no student isallowed to begin preclinical studies at the college who hasnot also been provisionally accepted by one of thesehospitals for clinical training ; students should thereforeapply at the same time to one or more of these hospitals.One feature associated with the preclinical course atKing’s College is the participation in the fuller activity ofuniversity life offered, because there are faculties of arts,laws, natural science, engineering, and theology also inthe college.The arrangements made by the joint committee of

QUEEN MARY COLLEGE and the London Hospital MedicalCollege ensure that the teaching in physics, chemistry,and biology fits in closely with preclinical teaching.Most of the places are taken by London Hospital menand women, but applications from students with otherhospitals in view are considered. During the 1956-57session 65 first-year medical students passed throughthe departments.