Raising horizons

摘要

Students agitate, campaign, and demand change-bigger grants, world peace, more halls of residence, that sort of thing. It goes with the territory. What the stereotype does not allow for is a group pressing, politely, for something to be added to the curriculum. The something in question is global health, and the body applying the pressure is the student organisation Medsin. "If you ask medical students about their public health teaching you often get the answer that it's rubbish, or they don't enjoy it or get much from it," says Claire Procter, a medical student at Newcastle and currendy president of Medsin. The evidence for her assertion being anecdotal, it is hard to know if she is right. Either way, deans dismayed by this damning comment on what their schools provide may be cheered by Ms Procter's next comment: "But students really do want to learn about international health issues."