Medicine 2019 - Part 2

[Monkey2001]

Oops, looks like none of noticed the old thread was full!

@HostessTrolley @Hoodiemum @4catsham @mamamedic @medicmom @mimiasovitch @Nightowlpossibly @ProfessorLayton1 @Tinkobell @Weaverspin @Itsthekissing @Sluj @Mumneedswine @Movingmountains

Apologies to any regulars I have missed

Sorry to hear that, Hostess. I'm not surprised she's annoyed. You can understand with such a long course that things like Intercalation options, terms abroad etc might change from when you chose the uni, but something big like that, and so soon in the course, does seem very unfair. Hope she finds it turns out to be less of a big deal than it seems at the moment.

She’s saying that a group of them are planning to go speak with the medic student union tomorrow to see if they can help and that it might mean her going elsewhere for her intercalation year to gain the experience.

She’s feeling a bit grotty today. She’s full of cold and it was a late night last night. She was out with a sports club and it was graduation day, there were lots of graduates in the bar sharing their drinking games with the freshers. She was still in class on time at 9am though lol

When I think of how mercilessly we have Competition & Markets Authority (CMA) compliance hammered into us ahead of every open day, I'm amazed Imperial would put itself at risk of prosecution like this. Who was it who told her anatomy teaching would definitely include dissection?

She tells me that they were told at open days and offer holder days. That they were open about the course structure being under review and some changes were under way, but when questions were asked about dissection they were told it would still be part of the course

I am with your Dd on this and no wonder she feels annoyed about this especially if she has had 3 offers and could have chosen to go else where. Do you have any documentation regarding the nature of the course when she accepted the course?

I’ll ask her. She said they’re going to speak to the SU and there’s a website that they can access to give course feedback.

On balance she says that she believes that she can access the experience during her intercalation depending on the option she chooses, and if that means intercalating at a different uni then she feels that she would be justified in making that choice. I think it’s the principle of her choice of uni being influenced in a way that feels underhand - she was in the top 5% or so for ukcat, good BMAT and straight a*s and must have interviewed reasonably well to have received offers.

As her mum I just feel sad that she’s worked so bloody hard to get there, and she was so happy and things were going so well but the shine has been taken off that at a very early stage. She hasn’t had an easy road. We do know that it’s been shown that prosection isn’t inferior, but people learn in different ways and this was important to her.

@ProfessorLayton1 they have an email sent to one of the students stating that cadaveric dissection would still be part of the course. And have an email from a faculty member to a student stating that imperial will be in the bottom two med schools in the country in terms of time spent on anatomy- they will be spending 1/3 of the time that kings have. That seems pretty radical for a med school that has a reputation for producing surgeons in particular...

I’m not sure about what was in prospectus information but they were certainly told verbally on the offer holders day that dissection was staying.

@HostessTrolley It sounds like they are in a strong position to insist on dissection for their cohort at least. It seems very unreasonable to change something which is widely known to be a reason for course choice. Good luck to her and all her fellow students.