President John Lahey spoke at the Student Government Association (SGA) meeting Mar. 3 about the impact of the new medical school on the Quinnipiac community, stressing that there will be no negative impact on the undergraduate school.
“We won’t be cutting anything from the undergraduate school,” he said.
The establishment of a medical school will offer a variety of advantages to undergraduates, particularly those in the school of health sciences. Health science students will have access to the Quinnipiac medical school cadaver lab, which will be located in building four on the North Haven campus. Currently, health science majors operate on cadavers at the Yale medical school.
According to Lahey, this will “strengthen the quality of students” applying to Quinnipiac.
Lahey said he feels that a medical school will be especially advantageous to the university community. Presently, only 89 universities in the country have both medical and law schools. This will give Quinnipiac “more visibility and prestige,” according to Lahey.
Undergraduate classes will continue to be taught by professors rather than graduate assistants. Many research-based schools divert professors away from the classroom in order to conduct research. This often results in larger class sizes and classes taught by graduate assistants.
Lahey is confident that the medical school will have everything it needs in order to meet the necessary accreditation, including hospital partners for internships.
“Virtually every hospital in the state has contacted us and wants to be our partner,” said Lahey.
In addition, many professionals in the medical field have already contacted Quinnipiac expressing interest in a position as dean of the medical school.
Quinnipiac may also use its connection with the Albert Schweitzer Institute to send medical students wishing to study abroad to various countries throughout the world.
According to Lahey, the need for practicing physicians in the country is growing and new medical schools are in high demand. Many students who don’t get into medical school in the U.S. study abroad, particularly in the Caribbean.
The new medical school will focus on the practice of medicine instead of medical research, according to Lahey. No PhD research degrees will be offered.
The school will also set aside a number of class spots for students that went to Quinnipiac as undergrads, similar to the current system the law school uses. Quinnipiac is also considering the addition of a seven-year medical degree program.
Under accreditation rules, Quinnipiac can begin admitting students to the medical school as early as Sept. 2013, However, this will be pushed back to Sept. 2014 if the proposed timeline falls behind schedule. Eventually, the medical school will hold 500 students, but for the first few years it is required to have less in order to meet accreditation standards.
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