Editorials
The Director’s Medical School Update I
am delighted, as ever, to provide an update on UCL Medical School news for the RUMS Review. This is now the fifth edition of an excellent publication which, I am sure readers will agree, plays a vital role in sharing information across a large and geographically distributed school. It’s a rather good read too! As a new year starts, it is a good time to look back on 2016, as well as looking forward to the forthcoming year. It feels like 2016 will go down in history as a spectacularly eventful year, and not necessarily in a good way. Medicine and medical education have not been immune from the impacts of these unsettled times: we have seen the most significant industrial action by doctors since the advent of the NHS, an
RUMS Review
announcement of forthcoming changes to the Medical Act that will result in the introduction of a national Medical Licensing Assessment, and we are yet to encounter the consequences of the Brexit fall-out and the introduction of the Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF). So, how do we enter 2017 with positivity? I am a born optimist (Which I discovered this year is very good for my health!) and so I can see opportunity in all of this change and uncertainty. The introduction of the TEF is an opportunity to push good education higher up the priority list for the university; the medical school team will ensure we capitalise on this and focus on the areas of provision that need updating and improving. The Higher Education Bill and planned
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increase in medical student numbers are both intended to widen participation; this is an opportunity for UCLMS to look at ways of attracting and retaining a more diverse group of students. The Medical Licensing Assessment will lead to a detailed examination of the GMC Outcomes for graduates. This provides a good opportunity to ensure that core elements of the curriculum which arise in the common assessment are clear and focused on good medical practice. I will be taking part in the group working on updating the “Outcomes for graduates” document and will try to ensure that we maintain the best aspects of the current medical education, while embedding the centrality of “hard to reach” capabilities and orientations to the experience of a UCL Doctor in