Doctors Welcome New Notre Dame Sydney Medical School – 15 July 2008
“The importance of the new Notre Dame Medical School opened on the 13th July 2008 at Darlinghurst in Sydney cannot be overstated”, Chairman of the Australian Doctors’ Fund, Dr Bruce Shepherd said in Sydney today.
The Australian medical profession will overwhelmingly welcome the university’s commitment to extensive teaching in bio-medical science and its strong emphasis on anatomy and pathology.
Doctors will also welcome the involvement of medical practitioners at all levels of teaching and a return to the virtues of the mentoring model of medical education made famous by Cambridge University but out of fashion until revived by Notre Dame Sydney.
The Australian Doctors’ Fund conference, “Rescuing Medical Education” held in 2005 identified many of the concerns of medical practitioners with some of the changes in medical educationincluding a de-emphasis on basic sciences particularly anatomy.
Professor Julie Quinlivan, the Dean of the new School of Medicine at Notre Dame Sydney has done an outstanding job, not just for the university but also for the Australian medical profession and for all those who will rely on the graduates of this university for their future medical care.
It also seems that medical students are voting with their feet for what would be considered by many to be a traditional medical education.
We are informed that Notre Dame Sydney has more first preference applications per place than any other graduate medical school, making it the most competitive medical school in Australia for entry.
“This is an outstanding achievement”, Dr Shepherd said.
