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Report of the General Board on the establishment of an office of Director of Medical and Veterinary Education in the Faculty of Biology

The GENERAL BOARD beg leave to report to the University as follows:

1. The University offers courses for both medical and veterinary students, at both the clinical and the preclinical level. The preclinical part of these courses is provided by, and until now has been mainly planned within, seven of the Departments of the Faculty of Biology, their work being co-ordinated until 1996 by the Faculty Board of Biology 'B'. This arrangement worked well so long as the aim was to deliver a course in which the contributions of individual Departments were more or less rigidly segregated, but it did not adequately support the management of educational change and the development of co-ordinated responses to increasingly frequent and thorough scrutiny by outside bodies.

2. A comprehensive review of the Cambridge medical and veterinary curriculum has been under-taken by the Faculty Board of Biology, following the appearance in 1993 of Tomorrow's Doctors, a publication prepared by the Education Committee of the General Medical Council. Following the recommendations of the Faculty Board of Biology and the Council of the School of the Biological Sciences as a result of this review, the General Board have concluded that an officer is now needed who will be responsible for the development and implementation of the decisions of the Faculty Board of Biology on those aspects of medical and veterinary education that fall within its remit, who will undertake liaison with the Clinical Dean and the Dean of the Veterinary School to co-ordinate preclinical and clinical education, and who will ensure that satisfactory liaison takes place with the Colleges and the Senior Tutors' Committee in relation to matters such as admission and College teaching. This is a substantial task, and to fill this role it is proposed that an office of Director of Medical and Veterinary Education should be established. The holder of this office would also be expected to work closely with the Faculty Board of Biology and its relevant committees to improve communication, to ensure that the Faculty Board of Biology is able to deal with issues in a timely and effective manner and is provided with the information needed to make decisions, and to see that the interests of cognate bodies, including the relevant professional organizations, are explored.

3. On the advice of the Council of the School of the Biological Sciences, and with the concurrence of the three Faculty Boards concerned (the Faculty Boards of Biology, Clinical Medicine, and Clinical Veterinary Medicine), the General Board have agreed that the office should be established in the Faculty of Biology. It is intended that the office should be held concurrently with another University office and that at least fifty per cent of the officer's time should be devoted to the duties of the new post. This arrangement will require the person appointed to be granted leave of absence on a part-time basis, without stipend, from his or her substantive office to enable him or her to fulfil the duties of the office of Director of Medical and Veterinary Education.

4. The General Board, after consultation with the Council of the School of the Biological Sciences, have agreed that the specific duties of the office should be determined by the General Board after consultation with the Faculty Board of Biology. The Board have also agreed that the stipend of the office should be at step 26 of the University's general scale of stipends (Statutes and Ordinances, p. 635) pro rata to the actual time commitment, as determined by the General Board on the occasion of the appointment. Initially, fifty per cent of the cost of the office will be met from the School's recurrent reserve; if more than fifty per cent of the officer's time is devoted to his or her duties as Director, the additional cost will be met from funds made available to the School from some other appropriate source. In accordance with Statute D, II, 2(b) the General Board have determined that the two offices may be held concurrently. The Director will not normally be permitted to hold a substantial College office such as Tutor, Bursar, or Steward.

5. The General Board recommend:

I. That an office of Director of Medical and Veterinary Education be established in the Faculty of Biology from 1 June 1999.

II. That regulations for the office of Director of Medical and Veterinary Education, as set out in the Schedule to this Report, be approved.

19 May 1999

ALEC N. BROERS, Vice-Chancellor JOHN A. LEAKE ADRIAN POOLE
P. J. BAYLEY PETER LIPTON K. B. PRETTY
JOHN E. CARROLL N. J. MACKINTOSH M. SCHOFIELD
BRIAN F. G. JOHNSON

SCHEDULE

1. Appointments and reappointments to the University office of Director of Medical and Veterinary Education in the Faculty of Biology shall be for periods not exceeding five years at a time and shall be made by an Appointments Committee consisting of the following persons:

(a) the Vice-Chancellor (or a duly appointed deputy) as Chairman;
(b) the Regius Professor of Physic;
(c) the Chairman of the Faculty Board of Biology;
(d) the Chairman of the Council of the School of the Biological Sciences;
(e) the Clinical Dean;
(f) two persons appointed by the Faculty Board of Biology;
(g) two persons appointed by the General Board.

2. The duties of the Director shall be determined by the General Board after consultation with the Faculty Board of Biology.

3. The Director shall conform to such conditions of residence as may be determined by the Faculty Board of Biology subject to the approval of the General Board.


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Cambridge University Reporter, 26 May 1999
Copyright © 1999 The Chancellor, Masters and Scholars of the University of Cambridge.