28 Feb 08

Robin Spacie is one of 150 undergraduates who are accepted to study Medicine at Oxford each year

Graduates from Oxford University Medical School consistently perform better than those from all other universities in postgraduate medical exams, according to a report published in February in BMC Medicine.

The UK General Medical Council suggests differing performance between medical schools is a strong argument in support of the introduction of a national licensing examination for doctors, similar to the medical system in the USA.

The study analysed the performance from 2003 to 2005 of 5,827 doctors from 19 UK medical schools in one or more of the three examinations required for membership of the Royal College of Physicians (MRCP). The examination is an international postgraduate assessment attempted by around 30 per cent of all UK medical graduates.

Oxford, Cambridge, and Newcastle-upon-Tyne medical graduates performed significantly better than average in Part 1 and Part 2 multiple choice assessments of the examinations. In the practical examination of clinical assessment skills, (PACES), Oxford graduates performed significantly above average.

Dr Tim Lancaster, Director of Clinical Studies at Oxford University, said: ‘It is very pleasing to see Oxford graduates performing so well in the MRCP examination, taken by 40 per cent of Oxford graduates in the period studied. Our graduates also had very high pass rates during the same period in the MRCGP, the equivalent examination for general practice postgraduate training.’

Selection of high quality students for the Oxford course is a major factor in explaining subsequent achievement, but the General Medical Council’s report found only 60 per cent of medical school variance was explained by differences in pre-admission qualifications. The remaining differences do not seem to result from career preference or other selection biases, and instead are presumed to result either from unmeasured differences in ability at entry to the medical school, or from differences between medical schools in teaching focus, content, and approaches.

Dr Lancaster said: ‘It is reasonable to attribute at least some of this excellent performance to the nature and quality of the education provided at Oxford. A strong emphasis on understanding the scientific basis of medicine, the opportunities for critical thinking and dialectic offered by the tutorial system, and a focus on teaching clinical skills at the bedside, are all distinctive features of the Oxford medical course.’