An Coiste FeabhaisAcadúil
The Committee on Academic Quality Improvement
The Academic Quality Assurance Programme 2002 – 2003
REVIEW OF
MASTERS IN MEDICAL SCIENCE
Final Report
14th April 2003
Masters in Medical Science: Review Group Report
This report outlines the findings and recommendations following a review of the
Masters in Medical Science degree on 12 and 13 March, 2003. The Course Team had
already prepared and submitted a 'Self Assessment Report' that, with other
documentation, was made available to the review team well in advance of the visit.
The review team consisted of: Prof. Rod Hay, Faculty of Medicine and Health
Sciences, Queens University Belfast (Chairman); Dr. Jacqueline O’Connor, School of
Biomedical Sciences, University of Ulster; Dr Eamonn Mulkerrin, Department of
Medicine, NUIG; and Dr Karen Doyle, Department of Physiology, NUIG, acting as
rapporteur.
The report is structured to cover the following main topics
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
Aims and objectives
Organisation and management
Instruction and learning
Scholarship and research
Community service
The wider context
Summary and concluding remarks
1. Aims and objectives
The Masters in Medical Science is a well- established postgraduate degree for medical
graduates who wish to undertake continuous professional development, and in
particular, to develop skills and to foster and develop research. Students can undertake
the programme on a full-time (1 year) or part-time (2 year) basis. Recruitment onto
the course is predominantly from local hospitals, although there is also substantial
recruitment from overseas. The number of students recruited onto the course has
increased considerably in the last few years to 30 - 40 per annum.
The aims and objectives of the Masters in Medical Science course, as presented in the
Self Assessment Report, are generic in nature. It would be of benefit for the course
team to develop more focused aims and objectives that clearly distinguish the course
from a taught degree at undergraduate level and identify as aims the many strengths of
this course. Such focused aims are included in the course objectives outlined for each
of the individual modules on the course.
Through consultation with staff and students, it has become apparent to the review
team that the course fulfils a number of roles:
• Continuous professional development for junior doctors
• Provision of a mechanism which may aid in the translation of clinical skills into
investigational and educational skills
• Opportunity to develop and foster research skills
As such, these have the potential to fill a much needed gap in postgraduate medical
education at SHO and early SPR level.
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Masters in Medical Science: Review Group Report
2. Organisation and Management
The review group recognise the generous commitment and contribution to the Masters
in Medical Science course by all members of academic and support staff, particularly
that of the Course Director and Course Administrator. The substantial increase in
student numbers of the last few years has put considerable strain on the course team.
In particular, the review group recommends that an administrative post be created for 2
days per week to provide necessary support for the efficient and effective running and
future development of the course.
In addition, there is a clear need for an additional half-time academic post in the area
of Biostatistics. Biostatistics teaching is a valuable core part of the Masters in Medical
Science and at present, the taught course is run on a very limited contract hours basis.
At the very least, allocation of funds to support greatly enhanced contract teaching
hours in statistics is urgently needed. In addition to the taught course aspect, students
on the Masters in Medical Science course also require consultation with a
Biostatistician on a one-to-one basis, for the planning of their research projects. At
present, there is no specific budget to support such consultation and yet it is very time
consuming.
The course is managed by the Faculty Postgraduate Medical Education Committee.
This committee meets regularly, and meetings are minuted. However, there is no
student representation from the course. The review group recommends that the course
team develop an independent Steering Committee for the course, with student
representation included.
The review group also recommends that an external examiner be appointed urgently
for the Masters in Medical Science. At present, research projects are examined by the
external examiner linked with individual departments of the Medical Faculty, but there
is no external examiner to oversee the taught modules, or to provide an independent
overview of the course as a whole.
The course is run in the Clinical Sciences Institute. In general, facilities to support the
course are reasonable. However, a write-up area devoted specifically to post-graduate
students would be of benefit. In addition, further IT support will be needed to support
the future development of the course, such as the further development of on-line
learning.
At present, there is no course budget, with which to support the course. In particular,
no consumables budget is available for research projects. Therefore, student research
projects are a considerable drain on individual departments. The review group
recommends strongly that there should be a course budget to support student projects.
3. Instruction and Learning
Two major problems highlighted in the Self Assessment document are student
attendance and completion.
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The taught modules of the course run at 8 am on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and on
Wednesday evenings from 6 to 8 pm. Due to the rotation of junior doctors, although
the students may start the course in a local hospital, they may be moved to a remote
location prior to completion. This clearly could lead to attendance problems. In
addition, the students may be ‘on-call’, and therefore, miss sessions. The review group
suggest that the course team consider the possibility of adopting a day release or block
release format for the lecture modules.
Another suggestion by the course team to facilitate students in distant locations is a
move towards a distance learning or on-line learning format. The review group notes
that much of the lecture material from the taught courses is presently available on-line
for students. A move towards a more formalised distance learning format will have
pronounced resource implications for the course, and will require development in line
with University distance learning strategy. For example resources for web page
production, maintenance and monitoring will be needed. In addition, there would be
implications for staff contact hours, as staff may be required to teach students on-line,
in addition to scheduled lectures. While the review group supports this development
for the Masters in Medical Science, we suggest that it will be a long-term endeavour,
not a short-term solution. However, in time, a distance learning package could allow
further expansion of student intake onto the course. Again, this would have to be
resourced appropriately.
Non-completion of the research project seems to underlie the poor completion rates for
the course. The review group recommends that the course team consider mechanisms
that may allow the Masters of Medical Science degree course to commence earlier
than at present (middle of October). If the course started earlier, students would have
more time to undertake their research project during the first year of the course, and
therefore, before any location changes due to clinical rotation. A decision on the
nature of the project and an outline plan could then be produced before the Christmas
break. Furthermore, the recruitment of additional administrative support could help to
keep the course team in contact with students when they have moved away.
Completion by students at a distance from the college may thus be facilitated. The
review group also supports the course teams’ suggestion to include a higher diploma
exit route from the course, for students who do not complete the research project, if
this is found to be practicable. However, this will need to be benchmarked against
equivalent higher diplomas in the University for consistency of academic
requirements.
One further issue, raised by students, which may militate against completion of the
research project, relates to assessment of the taught modules. The students suggest
that the timing of the formal exams may be a factor. Students tend to concentrate on
the taught material, rather than their project, in the period coming up to examinations.
As the course is heavily exam-driven in assessment terms, it may be only after the
final set of exams that students concentrate on their projects, thereby not leaving
themselves enough time for completion. The course team is in the process of
reviewing the amount and methods of assessment throughout the course, and the
review team welcome this development. A move towards inclusion of more
continuous assessment elements may spread the workload more evenly throughout the
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year, and is compatible with various teaching methods. In addition, the review group
recommends that a moderation, or double-marking system, be adopted for all marking.
The difficulty in standardising the clinical training assessment part of the postgraduate
training programme was highlighted by the course team in the Self-Assessment
document. The assessment of clinical training only applies to a small group of (largely
non-EU, full-time) students who have not yet passed their membership (Member of the
Royal College of Physicians) exams. The review group recommends that the course
team consider making the clinical training a requirement, or condition, of successful
completion of the course, but one that is not formally assessed. Students would still
gain valuable clinical training, but the difficulties of standardisation across
departments would be reduced. One further point raised by students in this position, is
that course examination dates should not coincide with membership examinations, if
possible.
A further issue raised in the Self-Assessment document is the course teams desire to
enhance the course content and change the overall module structure. After consultation
with staff and students, the review group suggests that the taught content of the course
could be repackaged into a more coherent framework with some minor modifications.
The present module ‘Science and Medicine’ could be divided into 2 separate optional
modules, which may attract students with different areas of interest. The two elements
would broadly cover topics pertaining to ‘Molecular Medicine’, or ‘Medicine and
Society’, providing a basis for the study of biomedical or community based issues
respectively. The content of the existing optional modules, Molecular Genetics,
Aspects of Laboratory Medicine and Health Promotion in General Practice, could feed
into one or the other of the enhanced new optional courses. This merger would
produce two high quality course streams to cater for a good range of student interests,
and would overcome problems with low uptake on certain presently run optional
courses.
The review group feels that a particular strength of the course could be the Medical
Teaching module. The module content could be strengthened to include aspects of
advanced communication skills, in addition to clinical teaching and media interaction
skills. With development, this course could have great potential in attracting short
course participation from senior professionals interested in undertaking some
continued professional development.
The review team supports the development of small group teaching, such as seminars,
workshops and tutorials. However, practically, this may only be achieved by the
adoption of a block release teaching format.
4. Scholarship and Research
The review group recommend that students be given very clear guidance on aspects of
completion of the project, such as planning, approximate duration of study, formal
deadlines and the requirements of the report. The review team also recommends that
supervisors also be given very clear guidance on relevant regulations, the
responsibilities of the supervisor, expected degree of interaction with the student etc.
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The review team also suggests that supervisors should complete a supervisors report at
the completion of the project to aid in ensuring similarity of levels of supervision and
aid in parity of assessment.
A suggestion from the course team to facilitate the growing number of students
undertaking projects is to allow students to undertake a Clinical Audit Review instead
of a research project. The review team fully support this suggestion.
A second suggestion to replace a research project in some cases, is to allow students to
undertake a systematic review. The review team have reservations about this
approach, as it will put strain on the already very limited Biostatistics resource of the
course and ideally would involve more than one individual contributor. The review
team feel that this approach would be beyond the resources presently available.
Another suggestion that arose from interviewing the students is that the course team
could consider allowing the students to undertake a literature review together with
presentation of their results in the form of a paper ready for submission for publication
instead of the traditional format of the research report.
5. Community Service
The Masters in Medical Science fulfils a need for junior doctors in providing basic
skills in investigative techniques. The course also provides a means of strengthening a
wider range of applied clinical skills during the period of general professional training
for junior doctors. Through further development of the course, these aspects will be
further strengthened. In addition, certain modules of the course could be offered as
courses for continued professional development to a wider audience in the locality.
Strengthening the education module in this course would also fill an important gap, as
there is an increasing need for educational training for medical practitioners.
6. The Wider Context
There is a general recognition of the need for formal courses to support junior doctors
with continued professional development. The recent advent of a scheme providing
financial support for such courses by Health Boards has increased potential student
intake. There is now a greater opportunity for NUI Galway to provide continuing
input into medical training at a postgraduate level. This is an appropriate time for the
University to assess the resource issues, and provide the investment that further
development in this area will require.
7. Summary and Concluding Remarks
In summary, the Masters in Medical Science degree is a well-established postgraduate
medical degree that fills a much needed gap in postgraduate medical education for
junior doctors.
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Masters in Medical Science: Review Group Report
Resource issues need to be urgently addressed to support the efficient and effective
running of the course. Additional administrative and biostatistics support is necessary,
as is a course budget to support research projects.
Non-completion of the research project seems to underlie the poor completion rates for
the course. Earlier commencement of the course, recruitment of additional
administrative and biostatistics support, adoption of more continuous assessment,
changes in the timetabling of module assessments, better student and supervisor
guidance on aspects of the project, and inclusion of alternative types of projects, such
as clinical audit reviews, may all help in improving the completion rates for the course.
The taught modules of the course could readily be repackaged into a cohesive
framework providing the basis for two distinct streams of students, each with a
different focus, i.e. biomedical or community issues.
The Medical Teaching module should be strengthened to include aspects of advanced
communication skills, clinical teaching and media interaction skills. The review team
suggests that this module could be developed as a particular strength of the course.
There is great potential for the further development of the Masters in Medical Science.
This is an appropriate time for the University to assess the resource issues, and provide
the investment that future development will require.
Prof. Rod Hay (chairman)
Dr Jacqueline O’Connor
Dr Eamonn Mulkerrin
Dr Karen Doyle (rapporteur)
(14 April, 2003).
Comments on The Methodology of the Review Process
No comments of note. The review team found that the process ran smoothly, and
thank the course team for their full participation.
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