Letters | For Hong Kong’s new medical school to succeed, experience is vital

Readers discuss what to look for in setting up a graduate-entry medical programme, pandas’ iconic status, and acceptance of reusable containers

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Hong Kong’s third medical school is expected to be set up in Ngau Tam Mei in the New Territories. Photo: May Tse

Published: 11:30am, 23 Dec 2024

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Hong Kong plans to set up a third medical school and a government task group is to devise its direction and parameters, with eligible local universities invited to submit proposals to run this school.

One key direction outlined is the diversification of medical education in Hong Kong. The new school is expected to differ from the two existing ones by offering a graduate-entry curriculum – Secretary for Health Lo Chung-mau said it could offer a US-style, second-degree four-year programme. Indeed, in the United States and Canada, medical, dental and optometry degrees are typically postgraduate, second-degree programmes.

Therefore, I think it’s necessary that the task group includes members with second degrees. Having expert advisers who have studied for a second degree in medicine or other health sciences would give the task group some personal insight and possibly a student-focused perspective in evaluating the universities’ proposals.

Given that a research component should be integrated into the programme if it is to be postgraduate in nature, it would be most sensible and effective for a university with abundant experience and human resources in running research-integrated health science programmes to establish the new medical school.

Human resources are the most important element in mounting any health science programme. Ideally, in a typical health science school, there should be four kinds of faculty members: scientists, clinicians, clinician-scientists and scientist-clinicians. Education, research and clinical practice synergistically benefit one another, and appropriate infrastructure and instrumentation is required to bolster the benefits of such faculty to students and the public.