Aston Medicine A100 MBChB 2019 entry

Stats : 1st biomed 2410 ukcat.
Also know someone rejected with 2700 ukcat and 4 As at a level.

Really? Wow !

None of the new medical schools are accredited by the GMC. How can they accredit somewhere where nobody has completed the course? This means nothing in terms of quality as the GMC would not be letting them offer tuition if they did not meet their standards. Plymouth and Exeter have not yet been accredited a year and Lancaster less than 2.
Most medical schools share buildings and lecture theatres, this is an entirely routine occurence, and does not make them substandard. A lot of med schools' buildings are separate from the main uni. Kings, for example is spread around London and Aston Med School is on Aston uni campus and closer than many med schools are to the main buildings. Any city uni will have buildings spread around as they expand as they have to fit in where they can.
What are you basing the comment that staff are not organised upon? I cannot find any student satisfaction stats for Aston for medicine yet? None of the things you have listed have any bearing on the quality of education you may receive except perhaps for the last one, so I would be interested in your source for this?

Second year students

All of them? What percentage said this, and what was the question asked in the survey? And what are they comparing this to? How many of htem have experience of other undergrad courses to compare?

calm down, enjoy Aston medical school. It is the best allover the world

Agree that the GMC accreditation should come if all goes well for the 1st cohort.

As for sources of information, when I looked at Aston back in the autumn, their May 2018 GMC annual review [ gmc-visit-report-aston-medical-school-may-2018_pdf-76337598.pdf ] was key to showing me where they were at. I got the impression that the med school is not entirely up there when it comes to how Aston allocates its resources, and that the effect on 2019 joiners is already negative.

Some key points were:
" Capacity, resources and facilities (R1.19)
11. The School had plans to build a new purpose built facility situated on the main Aston University campus, due to be completed by 2019 and in time to accommodate the second cohort of students. However, the senior management team told us during the visit that the estate plans for 2019 have changed and the School’s estate strategy is being reviewed. The School has been instructed by the University’s executive team to delay the planned construction of the new purpose built building by twelve months; as a result, the new building will not be ready by September 2019 as previously planned. We were told that the senior management team hopes to finalise its plans for the new building and facilities in the near future.
12. We heard that the senior management team and executives are confident that there will be appropriate teaching and learning space ready to accommodate students in Year 2, 2019. The School has been allocated a floor within the Vision Sciences building. It will contain four tutorial rooms, four clinical skills room, a lecture theatre and one large room which will be used for multiple purposes.
The team assured us that it is aware of the requirement to have capacity, resources and facilities to deliver safe and relevant learning opportunities for learners.
13. We are concerned that changes to the estate plans have been made so close to the start of the programme, and that this may have a negative impact on students. We are satisfied that there will be suitable and appropriate space to deliver the programme for the first cohort in 2018. However, major issues could arise when student numbers increase from 2019 onwards. The School must address this as soon as possible.
Requirement 1 – We are concerned that previous plans for teaching facilities have been changed so close to the start of the new programme. These plans must be finalised as soon as possible. "

This relative priority of the med school in obraining Aston's resources is impacting directly on student support:
" 14. We heard during the visit that the School will use the technology enhanced learning tool Talis to support the delivery of the programme. Students will be provided with tablets which will enable them to access the VLE (‘Blackboard’), online papers and books in the library. We were also told that the School has made a bid for an e-learning support staff member. The School told us that it is
aware of the resources required to support the cohort of students and would be concerned if this bid was unsuccessful. The effective use of enhanced learning will be significant for the successful delivery of this programme. It is important to ensure that there are sufficient resources available so that students’ learning needs are fully met.
Recommendation 2 – The School’s proposed programme will have a strong reliance on technology. The School should provide the necessary level of support to deliver this successfully. "

The difference between a new med school and established one that have expanded over many years is that organic expansion often results in different buildings being used. Even then, they aim for a cluster of dedicated estate, while Aston just seems to be fobbed off with almost the bare minimum on a yearly basis. (I expect Vision Sciences is probably also not best pleased with having their space requisitioned 'temporarily'.)

The resources for staffing also seem stretched, much more than in other new schools:

" Appropriate capacity for clinical supervision (R1.7)

4. The School told us that progress has been made with regards to staffing. We heard that the recruitment process has been a challenge, but the members of staff recruited so far have successfully contributed to the development of the programme. Some key posts still have not been filled, but the roles have been advertised and the School is confident they will be filled before the first cohort
starts in September 2018. If the School is unable to recruit clinical teaching fellows in advance of the first cohort, a senior nurse may be recruited or the first semester can be delivered by the initial project team.
5. The visit team is concerned that not all required staff have been recruited but are satisfied that a sufficient number are in place to start the programme in September 2018. Nevertheless, the visit team noted that many of the small core team will also take on additional roles as personal tutors. We are concerned that individual staff will not have enough time to fulfil their different roles and could be overloaded. The School should consider how best to mitigate this concern.
Recommendation 1 – The School has a very committed but relatively small core team, many of whom have taken on multiple roles. The School should consider how best to mitigate this in order to successfully deliver a full medical programme. "

Anyway, ppl can read the GMC review for themselves. Like everyone else, I do wish Aston a fair wind, places are much needed, and their staff seem committed; they must wish they were perhaps a little more valued by Aston management who are basically either struggling or have chosen not to provide front-line support to students on a very demanding vocational course.

May I ask what evidence there is that the 2019 annual review is likely to show that all these resource-deprived shortcomings will not impact on the 2019 cohort?

That seems a fairly standard GMC report - have you read some of the others?

The concerns are that there is not a new buidling yet, so space might be an issue; that there might not be enough staff to stop them being overloaded and there might not be enough IT support. Those seem like realistic concerns in the setting up of a new course. There is always a balance between employing staff before they are needed and not having them all ready on time. And I am more or less IT illiterate, so would be very concerned about how to use the facilities if I were lecturing, maybe less so if a student, but the GMC are asking them to ensure that backroom support is available.
The buildings situation is an innue for many as med schools expand.

The GMC's job is to look at current or potential issues and flag them up to be remediated, much like OFSTED, the CQC etc. It is within their power to shut a school down, or at least put it into special measures if they feel necessary, so they clearly are not that concerned. I would also be less bothered about this than comments relating to standard of teaching, placement, feedback etc
Eg
The school must ensure that all assessments are subject to appropriate quality control and quality management to provide a valid, reliable and fair judgement of students’ performance. This must include provisions for ensuring consistent teaching for all students across all sites.
The School must ensure that curriculum outcomes are mapped to all teaching, blueprinted appropriately to assessments, and are clearly communicated to students.
The School must ensure that students have access to comprehensive, consistent and timely guidance and support about the curriculum and how they
will be assessed. This must include expected learning outcomes, assessment format, range of content, marking schedule and contribution to overall grade.
The School must ensure that students receive regular, constructive, timely and benchmarked feedback on their performance so that they can review their own performance and address their strengths and weaknesses.

were the requirement demanded of Kings after failings found in their most recent assessment, particularly relating to teaching and assessments. They also stated:
"There are a number of external factors which have the potential to impact on the School’s delivery of medical education. There is a general risk to placements as a result of on-going service reconfiguration at South London Healthcare Trust, the downsizing of district general hospital capacity and potential reductions in staff numbers across the School’s partner hospitals. All providers in London face the challenge of a changing medical education landscape during the transition to Local Education and Training Boards (LETBs)"

UCLan when first settin gup were given a whole list of requirements: https://www.gmc-uk.org/-/media/documents/uclan-2017-18-report-final-plus-response_pdf-76172789.pdf
which were met when reassessed

So the safeguards are that the GMC would not let the course go ahead if they had concerns it would impact to a level to materially affect student learning outcomes, that they have set requirements and will be going back on a rolling basis as they are a new med school to check that they are met.

I think even we children know that such review reports have to balance concerns with the political and other costs of not letting the course go ahead, so letting the course go ahead does not mean that Aston med school is not struggling with resource allocation from their executive masters. The trouble is that it is students that suffer, in their time there, not really the staff who have more time to settle into the new 'product'.

It is a pretty big deal when the basic building is put back (it's not as if the school has been sprung on anyone overnight) and a bid for a key but mere single support officer (for an innovative and key teaching approach) is uncertain, as is the overstretched by unplanned multi-tasking albeit committed front line learning support. Maybe not a big deal for med school staff who have already trained and qualified, and can wait a few more years, but I assure you that it is plenty big enough for anyone who has half a choice who was aware of it before applying.

I don't see the relevance of random references to unsourced regulator phrases, it demeans someone who is usually meticulous about others' sourcing and generally seen as a good egg. UCLan - not your usual UK home-student school of choice, with only 15 places on offer... and the thing about London schools is that they've had track record of coping with a lot thrown at them, and politically they tend to have more clout without and within, than Aston med school appears to have with its own executive. I have no skin in this game, but there are issues with Aston med school, which of course we don't have to agree on.

I got an interview invite last Tuesday and my stats aren't the best, so there's still hope for you guys.
GCSES: 2 8s, 1 7, 1 A*, 4 As.
UKCAT: 620 average.
A-level Predictions: AAA.
Not sure if they take personal statement into account...

(Original post by ShikaMekiFuka)When’s your interview?

22nd February, do you have one?

have you had