Establishment The Royal Commission on Medical Education (1965–68) issued its report (popularly known as the
Todd Report) in 1968 on the state of medical education in the United Kingdom. The commission estimated that by 1994 there would be a need to train more than 4,500 doctors a year for the United Kingdom, and that this would have to be achieved by both increasing the numbers of medical students at existing medical schools, and establishing a number of new ones. It recommended that new medical schools should be immediately established at the universities of
Nottingham,
Southampton and
Leicester. The Royal Commission considered the possibility of medical schools being established at Keele University,
Hull University,
Warwick University and
Swansea University (then University College, Swansea). North
Staffordshire was deemed a very good site as it had a growing local population and several large hospitals. However, 150 students a year would be required to make it economically and educationally viable and thus the scheme was postponed. In 1978, the Keele Department of Postgraduate Medicine opened. This department conducted
medical research, and played a part in postgraduate medical education, but did not teach
undergraduate medical students. In 2003, 35 years after the publication of the Todd Report, the current medical school was founded.
Initial teaching From 2002 the school began teaching clinical undergraduate medicine to clinical medical students who had completed their pre-clinical medical education at either
School of Medicine, University of Manchester or the
Bute Medical School (
University of St Andrews). These students followed the curriculum of the Manchester School of Medicine clinical course, and after three years of clinical study at Keele, were awarded the degrees of
MBChB by the
University of Manchester. The first cohort of students completing their course at Keele did so in 2005. In 2003, Keele started teaching the full five-year course, using the Manchester curriculum. Both pre-clinical and clinical medical education were established in Staffordshire and Shropshire. Keele began to develop its own undergraduate medical curriculum in 2007.
Current teaching From the 2011/12 academic year all students have followed the Keele curriculum. In January 2012 it was announced that the
General Medical Council (GMC) had approved and registered the new five-year undergraduate curriculum. Students graduating in 2012 were awarded the Keele MBChB, wearing a new Keele two-colour hood reflecting the fact that students gain two degrees Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery. Previously medical students at Keele have graduated with a Manchester degree. The GMC visited and scrutinised progress throughout the course's development. Keele's curriculum is integrated, with clinical experience and skills being taught in years one and two, and weekly science teaching in year three. A small number of graduate entry places are available for year two of the course and there is a six-year option for applicants with non-science qualifications. From 2006, applicants have been required to sit the
UKCAT admission test. Years 1 and 2 teaching takes place on
Keele University campus. Clinical teaching, years 3–5, takes place at the
Royal Stoke University Hospital site, in
Hartshill. Teaching at Keele also involves attachments at District General hospitals in
Stafford,
Shrewsbury and
Telford, as well as attachments to
General Practitioners (GP) in Staffordshire and Shropshire.
Online learning Keele Medical School promotes the use of online learning material, such as Keele Basic Bites, which is a free online video-based learning tool for Keele University Medical students, created by senior academic staff. ==Programmes==