MEDICAL STUDENTS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXI, Issue 21910, 20 September 1934, Page 12

MEDICAL STUDENTS

QUESTION OF LIMITATION INCREASE IN RECENT YEARS EXPLANATION OF POSITION "A misconception has arisen in the press concerning the limitation of students at the Otago Medical School," said Mr. Kenneth Mackenzie, member of the Senate of the University of New Zealand and president of the Auckland University College Council yesterday. " The British Medical Association has taken no part whatever in this matter.

" It arose in this way: The Otago school, after a series of years, in which its entrants numbered 40 to 50, in 1932 had a sudden rise to the eighties, which has continued for the two subsequent years. At the January, 1934, meeting of the New Zealand University Senate, the Council of Otago University asked the Senate to approve the principle of limitation. The Senate decided that, if it was shown that a limitation was necessary, the power should be left in the hands of the executive of the Senate to determine the means by which this limitation should be put into action. "At the September meeting of the executive the Otago University Council stated that, in their opinion, limitation was necessary, and submitted certan regulations in regard to this. The executive thereupon instructed Mr. H. F. von Haast, the treasurer of the Senate, and myself to proceed to Dunedin to inspect the school, to hear the views of the council and to report whether, in our opinion, limitation was necessary. This we have done, and our report will be submitted at the October meeting of the Senate executive.

" I attended a meeting of the executive of the New Zealand branch of the British Medical Association, which was held in Wellington on September 12. No mention was made there of this matter of limitation, nor is there any reference to it in any previous minutes of the association.

"In regard to the shortage of graduates to take up hospital appointments it should be realised that at present medical students are coming to graduation to the number of about 35 a year. Two years hence this number will be increased. After three years, and certainly for three years following that again, it is likely that the graduates will be in the neighbourhood of 70, when difficulty will probably arise in securing sufficient hospital resident posts to give them the necessary practical training."