Reduction in medical academics threatens medical education

Abstract

The ongoing decrease in the number of medical academics has dramatically altered the ratio of students to teachers in universities and could destabilise undergraduate medical education, the BMA’s Medical Academic Staff Committee has said. Speaking at the Conference of Medical Academic Representatives, Michael Rees, co-chairman of the committee, warned that a reduced medical academic workforce would struggle to cope with the number of medical students and to meet the high expectations of students paying up to £9000 a year in fees. “In the past 15 years the number of medical academics …