24 February 2017. In the so-called "St.Gallen track", undergraduates spend most of their studies at the University of Zurich but then switch to the University of St.Gallen to pursue their Master’s studies in the new programme, "Joint Medical Master St.Gallen".
A wealth of experience: a strong point of the programme
The entire "St.Gallen track" is based on cooperation between the two Universities of St.Gallen and Zurich in partnership with the St.Gallen Cantonal Hospital and Zurich’s University Hospital. Cooperation partner Zurich is able to look back on many years of experience when it comes to training medical doctors. This will be complemented by the medical knowledge that exists in Eastern Switzerland and the experience of local teachers at existing medical faculties. Thanks to the involvement of the University of St.Gallen, its recognised know-how in the economic, legal and social sciences is also a focal area that can be harnessed for the training of future medical doctors. A further focus of the new medical curriculum in St.Gallen will be on primary care and interprofessionalism.
Clinical training will be provided in a network of different health institutions, with the St.Gallen Cantonal Hospital taking on a leading role. Thanks to this interlinked structure, the Cantonal Hospital, the Eastern Swiss Children’s Hospital, the St.Gallen Geriatric Clinic and the resident physicians will be able to pass on their competence to the medical students in an optimal manner. The application figures communicated by the Swiss University Conference (SUC) indicate that the combination of knowledge and clinical experience provided by four high-ranking institutions, as well as the focal points of the St.Gallen curriculum, are also rated as attractive and future-oriented by prospective students.
State of the project work and outlook
The St.Gallen Cantonal Government ordered the conceptualisation of the "Joint Medical Master St.Gallen" on 2 November 2016. Meanwhile the steering committee appointed by the government has become operative, and the project organisation has started. Furthermore, the fundamental questions that had still been open concerning cooperation between the two Universities of St.Gallen and Zurich and between the St.Gallen Cantonal Hospital and the Zurich University Hospital have been settled. This means that the preparatory work required with regard to the specific configuration of the curriculum has been concluded. In a next step, prospective stakeholders in Eastern Switzerland, inter alia from the areas of medicine, business and politics, will be provided with more detailed information about the project and be involved in the specific configuration of the curriculum. In addition, the bill for the necessary amendment of the University Act is being drafted, which is scheduled to be debated by the Cantonal Parliament in winter 2017/18. The subsequent referendum is timetabled for June 2018.
Photo: Fotolia / Romolo Tavani