A medical school is changing the way it manages examination results after four practising doctors were forced to repeat their finals when it was discovered they’d wrongly been awarded passes.
Cardiff University School of Medicine’s changes include creating two new positions aimed improving the analysis and management of assessment data, and bringing forward the final written exam.
BMA Cymru warned that the reputation of medical education in Wales depended upon the changes preventing a similar error in the future.
The four medical students were told they had passed their finals last summer and started working as doctors. But, when the mistake was uncovered, they were suspended from duty and are now repeating their final year.
Professor Paul Morgan, dean of medicine at Cardiff University, said: “The School of Medicine recognises the seriousness of the issues which have been raised through the investigation and I reiterate my personal apology to those students affected.
“The school will be undertaking all the action required to ensure that such errors cannot be repeated. The implementation of the recommendations is regarded as an absolute and high level priority.”
Following an investigation into the mistake, two appointments are being made: an assessment data manager, who will be responsible for the capture, secure storage and reporting of assessment data; and an academic psychometrician, who will be responsible for analysing assessment data and ensuring that examinations and other assessment activities in the school are fair and robust.
A new director of medical education has also recently been appointed, with responsibility for oversight of all aspects of the five year undergraduate course.
The final written examinations have been brought forward to May 2010 to allow more time to verify the results, and a monitoring group has been set up by the university to oversee the changes.
Dr Richard Lewis, the BMA’s Welsh secretary, said: “We sincerely hope that the measures taken by the university, including the appointment of a director of medical education and an assessment data manager, together with implementing the recommendations of this investigation, will ensure that such events will never happen again.
“The reputation of medical education in Wales depends upon it.”
Tags: Exams, Medical students