The need for a Catholic medical school in Britain is greater than ever

St Mary’s University, Twickenham, recently celebrated the 175th anniversary of its foundation in 1850. In our first century or so, which included in 1925 moving to our beautiful campus at Strawberry Hill, we went from training a small number of teachers who educated the poor in the slums of London to training a large proportion The post The need for a Catholic medical school in Britain is greater than ever first appeared on Catholic Herald. The post The need for a Catholic medical school in Britain is greater than ever appeared first on Catholic Herald.

Jan 4, 2025 - 04:00

The need for a Catholic medical school in Britain is greater than ever

St Mary’s University, Twickenham, recently celebrated the 175th anniversary of its foundation in 1850. In our first century or so, which included in 1925 moving to our beautiful campus at Strawberry Hill, we went from training a small number of teachers who educated the poor in the slums of London to training a large proportion of Catholic teachers in our country. If you went to a Catholic school in Britain, it is highly likely that you were taught by at least one alumnus of St Mary’s University.

In the last 25 years, we have moved ahead with great speed. We have been given degree-awarding powers, bestowed university status and then research-degree-awarding powers. In the last government assessment of research excellence, St Mary’s was the highest climber when it came to research quality. For the last few years, we have been close to or in the top 50 universities in the country according to the Sunday Times league table and consistently ranked in the top ten for the experience of students in a range of national publications and rankings. Academics from St Mary’s University regularly participate in important events in Vatican institutions or with international Catholic universities on a range of subjects.

Just as the great need in the 19th century was teachers, today there is a great need for medical practitioners in the Western world. So the next step for St Mary’s University is to open a School of Medicine.

Although we do not have substantial existing expertise in the physical sciences, our teaching and research specialisms have developed to include a wide range, such as “Living and Dying Well”, sport and rehabilitation, allied health and human trafficking – ideal expertise for a modern medical school in a country with an ageing population and wide health inequalities. In addition, the university has a renowned strength in bio-ethics with staff being active in research, teaching and intellectual debates.

The idea of a medical school was first mooted in 2017. From 2020, we started examining the concept more closely. We were aware of the biblical injunctions to “be not afraid” and to “count the cost”. They are not contradictory. We have to be courageous, but not reckless.

We talked to a wide range of experts – including people whom we expected to be sceptical. Amongst them were qualified medics, academics in medicine, people prominent in the Royal Colleges, and a range of other stakeholders, including the regulator. The response was positive. And those closer to the practicalities of setting up medical schools were the most positive.

But why a school of medicine in a Catholic university? Prominent groups are opposed to faith-based education in Britain today. And yet only 37 per cent of the UK’s population have no religion – and many of these may still be believers or have an affinity with Christian ethics. Is there not a case for some pluralism in the medical school sector?

We believe St Mary’s University to be an ideal setting for medical education. We will encourage students to take ethical debates seriously so that they become well-formed ethical practitioners. We will ensure that doctors who graduate understand the ethics of life issues.

In those areas where the law permits practices which the Church regards as unethical, rights of conscientious objection exist, and it is important that all doctors understand those rights and exercise them in accordance with their conscience. Of course, it is possible that assisted suicide will be added to the list of such practices in the near future.

The regulatory framework does not prevent a medical school being established in a Catholic university either in theory or in practice. It is possible to meet the regulatory requirements without compromising the Catholic mission of the University in teaching, research or medical placements.

But the mission goes further than the “thou shalt nots”. A Catholic university requires that students are the subject of education. In accordance with this philosophy, St Mary’s puts students at the centre of all that we do, and we will ensure that this applies in medicine – a subject in which we know many students struggle to flourish.

Just as we put the student at the centre, we will also encourage our graduates to put the patient at the centre. The phrase we are using as we develop the curriculum is the “complete doctor”. We would like our graduates to be ethically discerning, caring practitioners who consider the medical needs of their patients in their totality.

Of course, many other medical schools have student-centred medical programmes producing patient-centred doctors. But we hope that the culture of St Mary’s University, which has developed over nearly two centuries, will ensure that we excel in these and other respects.

(Photo courtesy St Mary’s University, Twickenham.)