Warwick Medical School

The Warwick Medical School is based at one of the UK’s leading research universities. The University of Warwick is consistently in the top 10 Times University ratings. The School was opened in 2000 as part of a government initiative to train more doctors in Britain. Originally linked with Leicester Medical School, Warwick has enjoyed rapid growth and in 2007 it was granted independent degree-awarding status by the Privy Council on the recommendation of the General Medical Council of the United Kingdom. Warwick Medical School is the only solely graduate-entry school in the UK.

The School comprises three institutes: the Institute of Clinical Education (ICE) which co-ordinates undergraduate and postgraduate teaching, the Health Sciences Research Institute (HSRI) and the Clinical Sciences Research Institute (CSRI).

The Institute of Clinical Education (ICE)
The Warwick MB ChB

Warwick offers a four-year Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery (MB ChB) to biological, natural and physical science graduates. Applicants must have a good (upper second and above) degree or equivalent.

The course features early involvement with patients and focuses on developing both clinical and communication skills from the beginning. The MB ChB is divided into two phases: Phase I lasts for 18 months and accounts for the bulk of academic learning. As well as attending lectures, students work in small learning groups, guided by clinicians or academic staff.

Phase 2 is largely based around 11 clinical blocks of 8 weeks duration and an 8-week elective attachment. The majority of the clinical placements are in three hospitals, the new University Hospital Coventry at Walsgrave (UHCW), Warwick Hospital and George Eliot Hospital. Placements are also provided in primary and community care settings, ranging from GP practices to outreach projects and mental health services in the local area.

The admissions procedure for the MB ChB course at the Medical School begins with an application through UCAS. Prospective students are then invited to take the UK Clinical Aptitude Test. A proportion of applicants are invited to a selection centre which involves an interview and some team and written exercises. Successful applicants are then selected based on their performance at the selection centre. In 2005, 900 applications were received of which 300 were interviewed for 164 places.

Continuing Professional Development (CPD) Warwick Medical School has more than 2,000 postgraduate taught students enrolled on CPD courses. It offers Postgraduate Awards, Postgraduate Certificates, Postgraduate Diplomas, Masters Degree, Short Courses and Undergraduate Level and Non-accredited Courses. Subject areas include Child Health, Chronic Disease Management, Dentistry, Diabetes, Public Health and Occupational Health. Warwick also offers a taught Postgraduate programme in Medical Education designed to provide health care professionals involved in the delivery of teaching and training in the health care environment with appropriate pedagogic skills.

Research Degrees The School offers a three year full-time or five year part-time PhD or a two year full time or three year part time MPhil. Postgraduate students can also choose to study for an MSc by Research, one year full time or two years part time, or an MD (Doctor of Medicine) which is a two year full time or three year part time course of study. All students have a team of two or more supervisors. The supervisory team will meet on a regular basis with the student to ensure adequate monitoring and supervision of the student. The School works in close collaboration with a number of departments within the University. This collaboration enables students to have supervisors from different departments with different expertise.

The Health Sciences Research Institute (HSRI)
The HSRI specialises in community focused academic research with links to a number of NHS trusts and is the co-ordinating centre for the Warwick and West Midlands Primary Care Research Network. The Institute covers epidemiology, clinical trials, biostatistics, health economics, modelling, social sciences and psychology. Key research areas include are public mental health, emergency care and rehabilitation, cancer and primary care. There are also developing areas such as health care systems improvement.

Warwick Clinical Trials Unit
The Warwick Clinical Trials Unit was set up in 2005 within the HSRI. It is an academic clinical trials unit with expertise in the design and conduct of trials, particularly of complex health states and interventions. The trials unit has four major strands of work: musculoskeletal conditions including injury prevention and management; cancer; clinical trials methodology; and systematic reviews. The unit has grown dramatically since 2005 and a new Clinical Trials Building is planned for the Gibbet Hill campus. The Wolfson Foundation is supporting this new building with a £1 million grant.

The Clinical Sciences Research Institute
The Clinical Sciences Research Institute (CSRI) is based in a modern, purpose-built facility on the site of the major regional University Hospital Coventry and Warwickshire (UHCW) and was opened in 2005. It specialises in translational medicine, epidemiology and clinical effectiveness. There are 36 senior research academics based at the Institute, which has state-of-the-art equipment for molecular, cellular, proteomic, transcriptomic and functional studies. The Institute’s research themes are consistent with the strategic areas of development at University Hospital Coventry and Warwickshire.

Research areas at CSRI include Metabolic Health with an emphasis on obesity and diabetes, Cardiovascular Medicine and Epidemiology and Reproductive Health.

History
The School was established as a collaborative venture with the University of Leicester, the Leicester-Warwick Medical School. Professor Ian Lauder was appointed Dean of the new joint School. The first students to study at Warwick arrived in September 2000. The School had temporary headquarters on the main University of Warwick campus until the Medical Teaching Centre was completed in August 2001 and was formally opened by the Secretary of State for Health in 2002. In 2003 the current Dean of Warwick Medical School Professor Yvonne Carter was appointed as Vice-Dean, before taking on the role of Dean of Warwick Medical School the following year.

The first cohort of MB ChB students graduated in 2004, the same year that the old Mathematics and Statistics building at Gibbet Hill was refurbished and renamed the Medical School Building. The Medical School Building is now home to the Dean’s Office, the Warwick Clinical Trials Unit and HSRI. The Clinical Sciences Research Institute was opened on the site of University Hospital Coventry and Warwickshire in 2005, by Sir Graeme Catto, President of the General Medical Council. In 2006, the School opened a Biomedical Learning Grid for students. This study resource is equipped with up-to-date IT equipment, interactive white boards, plasma screens and PCs as well as more traditional learning materials such as reference texts and anatomical models.

Following an intensive period of assessment in 2006 by the General Medical Council, Warwick was formally recommended to receive independent degree-awarding status. This was enacted on 2 May 2007 when the Medical Act was amended by Her Majesty the Queen in the Privy Council. Independent degree-awarding status came into effect on 6 June 2007. MB ChB graduates in the summer of 2007 were the first to receive University of Warwick medical degrees.

Student Led Projects
In 2005 a student-led project initiated Medics Without A Paddle to write an e-book containing free revision notes for all the 70-odd pages of objectives that students were expected to cover during their phase II clinical attachments. The material is entirely produced by the student body and two student editors oversee entries. This project was conceived of to promote co-operation between students in spreading the knowledge and experiences gained from a variety of sources. Site URL is: http://uk.geocities.com/medicswithoutapaddle/index.html The medics community are brought together under the leadership of the University of Warwick Medsoc who organise social events, Medics sports (so as not to clash with their busy timetables) and the yearly Revue whose function is mainly to poke fun at the Medical School and the NHS.

Phase I Assessments 2007
As was reported in the March 2007 issue of StudentBMJ News, a third of 185 students who sat the second year end of Phase 1 exam were unsuccessful. Following a retake examination, 35 students were unable to continue with the course. Those students faced termination of their course. The high failure rate was investigated by Warwick University (see below). See also Senate Minutes March 2007

Following a thorough appeals process, out of the 35 students, 9 had their course terminated. The remaining students have been permitted to re-sit the second year of the course.

Warwick Medical School conducted an internal investigation in an attempt to understand why 30% of students failed its 'End of Phase 1' examination this year. According to a statement sent to Wikipedia, the Medical School administration gave "deep consideration to the unexpected results of the recent Leicester-Warwick Medical Schools Phase 1 examination and are unable to explain why so many students failed this assessment, including some students with previously strong academic records.[citation needed] External examiners commented that the assessment was a fair assessment, which was conducted in exemplary fashion.[citation needed]

The School conducted a significant event review to see if it could shed light on this as there were no obvious reasons. It claimed that it cannot attribute an increased failure rate to changes in the student curriculum or changes in the assessment process. There appeared to have been no single area of the assessment which caused difficulty across the student cohort. The Significant Event Review Report was made available to all students in May 2007. Warwick Medical School has taken steps to implement those recommendations of the report which have not already been implemented in the changes to the new Warwick curriculum.

The School claims that whilst it is not in the Medical Schools' interest to have a large number of students fail any progression test, it had to act responsibly in accordance with student performance. If all had met the required standard, they would all have passed.