the
medicalstudent December 2012
The voice of London’s Medical Students
ICSM Students Unsatisfied? UN Director talks AIDS Page 6
Festive Fatty Page 11
Ken Wu
The faculty at the Imperial College School of Medicine recently held three ‘town hall style’ meetings with students to discuss the results of the 2012 National Student Satisfaction (NSS) survey. The meetings, held either at the Charing Cross Hospital, South Kensington or St Mary’s Hospital campuses, were prime opportunities for the students to directly engage with the senior staff at Imperial and discuss the results of the student response, as well as ways to improve student satisfaction in future. This is the first time such meetings have been held at ICSM, and it comes on the back of the NSS results which saw satisfaction decrease to 83% from 90% in 2011 for Medicine. Furthermore, the 2012 results are especially significant for the Faculty of Medicine as they reflect the views from the first cohort of the fouryear Graduate Entry Medicine program. Each of the three meetings followed roughly the same format, with an initial presentation of the NSS results by Mr Martin Lupton, one of the deputy directors of education, which was followed by an open-forum question and answer session. The meeting then moved into a more informal setting, where students and
staff wrote post-it notes outlining their views and suggestions about the Imperial medical course. All of the meetings were well attended, with senior faculty members such as Deputy Principal of the Faculty of Medicine, Professor Jenny Higham; the newly appointed Pro Rector of Education, Professor Debra Humphris; the Deputy Directors of Education, Mr Martin Lupton and Professor Karim Meeran present. Students from across all year groups came to share their opinions in the meeting, as well as the ICSM students’ union, with the current president Shiv Vohra and past presidents Suzie Rayner and Anil Chopra all contributing their views. Similar themes and views cropped up across all the meetings. Students were generally dissatisfied with the quality of feedback, especially concerning exams. This is an area of particular concern to the faculty as it received one of the worst scores on the NSS survey, scoring 57% with a ranking of 66th. Furthermore, in a poll conducted at the meeting, improving feedback and exams was the most popular choice by students if only one aspect of the course could
be improved. Students also expressed their desire for better organisation of the course, and the need for a course overview and a stronger curriculum. On the positive side, students were especially pleased with the quality of teaching and learning environment, particularly praising the opportunity to be taught by world-leading academics and clinicians. Furthermore, each meeting also produced its own unique discussions. One meeting was dominated by a debate about the BSc year, which Imperial currently places in the fourth year after the first clinical year: the only medical school in the UK to adopt this format. A heated debate ensued as to whether Imperial should consider switching the BSc to year three, aligning itself with all other institutions and having a continuous three-year clinical program. Supporters of the change say that it would benefit their clinical experience and help with fifth year specialities and final year exams, while opponents pointed to the benefits of having one year of clinical experience and the impact that has on BSc project choices. Exams dominated another meeting, with students saying that Imperial's exams are
disproportionately difficult compared to other institutions, which has a detrimental effect on the decile rankings for Foundation Program applications. The NSS survey results have always been much of an enigma to ICSM students and staff. Despite strong national and international league table performances, with Imperial coming 5th in the Times Higher Education World University rankings for clinical and pre-clinical medicine, Imperial has always struggled with student satisfaction. Even in London, the overall satisfaction for Imperial ranks third, behind UCL and Barts. These town-hall style meetings have been highly successful in gaining a clearer understanding of what students still need from the university, and the ways in which the faculty can bring this about. Encouragingly, steps have already been taken to bring about improvements in the course. The results from the review of the graduate entry course have just been published and the undergraduate course is also undergoing its early year review. Hopefully, the results from the reviews and meetings will produce an effect and improve student satisfaction in the future
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