History

Structure of the Faculty of Medicine

The University of Otago's Medical School is the oldest in the country and was founded in 1877. The School expanded from its Dunedin base in the 1970s when two clinical Schools of Medicine were established at Christchurch (1972) and Wellington (1977). In the mid-1990s, the University of Otago Medical School became the Faculty of Medicine comprising the School of Medical Sciences, which contributes to courses in medical, health science and pure science programmes, and the Christchurch, Dunedin and Wellington Schools of Medicine, which are primarily clinical schools. In 2001 there was a further restructuring and renaming and now staff of the Otago School of Medical Sciences, the Dunedin School of Medicine, and the Christchurch and Wellington Schools of Medicine & Health Sciences make up the Faculty of Medicine.

A brief history

Lindo Ferguson building The Otago Medical School opened in 1875, some twenty-two years after Otago became a province and six years after the University of Otago was established as a corporate body with powers to grant degrees in Arts, Medicine, Law and Music.

In its first eight years the School provided a two-year course only and students were required to go abroad for completion of their training for a medical degree, usually to London or Edinburgh. The right to award the MBChB. (NZ) degrees was approved for Otago in 1877 by the then Senate of the University of New Zealand with which the University of Otago had become an affiliated college in 1874. A Faculty of Medicine, as such, was not formally constituted until 1891 at the same time as the appointment of the first Dean, John Halliday Scott, Professor of Anatomy since 1877. The first Otago student to complete the full four-year course, William Ledingham Christie, graduated in 1887. From 1885 onwards there was what was described as a "full curriculum" which followed the recommendations of the General Medical Council of the United Kingdom. With the exception of the Professors of Anatomy, Physiology, and later Pathology, the teachers were mostly part-time clinical lecturers until around 1910 when part-time, and later full-time, professors began to be appointed.

By 1904 some 90 students had graduated MB ChB. (NZ). In 1920 the course was extended to one of six years. Eventually in 1961, when the University of New Zealand was disestablished, power to confer degrees was restored to the University of Otago.

From 1924 onwards sixth-year medical students were attached to the main centre hospitals in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch, as well as in Dunedin. This satisfactory arrangement for clinical teaching was formalised in 1938 with the setting up of "Branch Faculties" of the Otago School in the three northern centres. By this time there were approximately 400 undergraduates in the medical course. The Auckland Branch Faculty was disbanded shortly after the Auckland School of Medicine admitted its first students in 1968 and in Christchurch and Wellington the Branch Faculties were absorbed into the Otago "Clinical Schools" when these opened in 1973 and 1977 respectively.

With increasing numbers of entrants into the medical course in the 1930's, and with the increasing pressure on staff and facilities, the first limitation on student admissions into the second year was introduced in 1940. The first restriction to 100 per year was modified soon afterwards in 1943 to 120 in response to war-time pressures from the Government of the day. In subsequent years the restricted limits have been 150 from 1972-74, 200 from 1975-80, 150 from 1981-85 and 170 since 1986. However, the Medical Admissions Committee may also offer additional places to foreign students sponsored by a government organisation. The University also now accepts into second-year classes each year up to twenty full fee-paying students sponsored by their Governments. The Faculty also accepts full fee paying International students.

In its first hundred years the Otago Medical School survived numerous crises, most of them attributable to recurrent financial constraints. In the late 1960's teaching staff shortages, together with a continuing student overload in relation to both the size of the teaching staff and the restricted clinical facilities available in Otago created a crisis which, in 1968, led to a special review commissioned by the University of Otago and undertaken by an external assessor, Professor R V Christie, Dean Emeritus of the McGill University Faculty of Medicine. The outcomes of this review, and, in particular, the actions taken by the University and funded by the University Grants Committee, gave new life to the Otago School. These included:

Parliamentary legislation approving University appointees to the Otago Hospital Board
University involvement in the rebuilding of the Dunedin Hospital with more complete integration of clinical academic and service departments
The provision of additional staffing and expanded facilities for the preclinical teaching of 200 new students per annum in Dunedin
The opening of "Clinical Schools" in Christchurch (first students in 1973) and later in Wellington (first students in 1977).

in 1995, following the first Australian and New Zealand Medical Council review the Faculty structure was further changed. The Faculty of Medicine now comprises the Otago School of Medical Sciences (Departments of Anatomy and Structural Biology, Biochemistry, Microbiology, Pharmacology and Physiology) and the Christchurch, Dunedin and Wellington Schools of Medicine.

Previous Deans of the Faculty of Medicine:

JH Scott (1891 - 1914)
(Sir) H Lindo Ferguson (1914 - 1936
(Sir) CE Hercus (1937 - 1958)
(Sir) EG Sayers (1959 - 1967)
WE Adams (1968 - 1973)
JD Hunter (1974 - 1977)
GL Brinkman (1978 - 1985)
JD Hunter (1986 - 1990)
RDH Stewart (1991 - 1995)
AJ Campbell (1995 - 2005)
LJ Holloway (2005 - 2006)
DM Roberton (2006 - )

Looking Back
Otago Bulletin, September 2008
One-hundred-and-thirty-three years ago, in a very different Dunedin, the University made the bold decision to start a Medical School. The history of that school is explored in a book by retired Associate Professor of History Dr Dorothy Page.