education
WHAT UNIVERSITY HAS THE MOST SATISFIED MEDICAL STUDENTS? Text:
Matias Jacomet | Vice-President for Education 21/22
Have you ever talked to students from other medical faculties about their medical education? If you have, you might also have been surprised how different the experiences of students that study the same subject can be, based on where they study it. It already starts before the studies actually start: The faculties in the German part of Switzerland select their future students via an aptitude test, while the faculties of Geneva and Lausanne conduct their selection at the end of the first year. In some medical faculties, students get to interact with patients already during the first years of the semester, while at other faculties the first patient-contact happens during the last year of the bachelor. Some faculties tend to have quite a thoroughly planned schedule, while other faculties also include more time for individual studying. These are just a few of many examples how medical education can differ between the faculties. But what aspects of medical education are the most important regarding student satisfaction? And are there significant differences in student satisfaction between the faculties regarding these aspects of medical education? This is what the AK/CoFo wanted to find out and this was the beginning of the National Comparative Survey.
What aspects of medical education have a significant impact on the general satisfaction of medical students? Taking into account the many noticed differences between the faculties above, the following question arised: What aspects of medical education are relevant for the students' satisfaction? To answer this, the AK/CoFo 20/21, which is represented by students from all ten medical faculties, conducted a brainstorming session to gather as many potentially relevant aspects. A small working group was then assigned to the project and categorised the different aspects into eight variables: “Curriculum & Schedule”, “Lectures & Teaching”, “Practical Courses”, “Patient/Clinical Courses”, “Exams”, “Communication”, “Learning materials & Infrastructure” and “Mental Health”. They also formulated different questions to ask about student satisfaction regarding these variables. The questionnaire was then revisioned and finally unanimously accepted by the AK/CoFo 21/22. At this point, I want to once more thank the over 30 medical students, for all their time and effort they put into the creation, distribution and evaluation of this survey. Without you, this project would never have been possible.
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