The University of Auckland School of Medicine, 1960-1980

Abstract

The University of Auckland School of Medicine opened for its first year of undergraduate teaching in 1968. It was the second medical school opened in New Zealand, preceded by the medical school at the University of Otago which was founded in 1875. This thesis examines the history of the Auckland Medical School from the process of its founding in the 1960s and through it first years of operation until 1980. The first chapter covers the period of 1960-1968, and investigates the political justifications for founding a second medical school in New Zealand, the academic ideas about medical education in this period and how compromises between the political and academic goals of the University of Auckland shaped the development of the medical school. The second chapter chapter covers the period from 1968-1980 and focuses on the institution of the Medical School. This chapter examines how several of the founding ideas changed when faced with the practical reality of operating the Medical School, and the reform process that began in 1974. The third chapter covers Auckland medical student culture in the 1970s, drawing from the medical students' magazine Quack. This chapter examines the relationship students had with the institution of the Medical School and its staff, students' experience of medical education, and their views on their future careers in medicine. The Auckland Medical School was founded during a period in which a projected national shortage of doctors coincided with an international movement to reform medical education. In Auckland, the founding of the Medical School was particularly influenced by the UK report School of Medicine and Human Biology: Reports of the Working Parties, commonly referred to as the Fry-Malleson Report. This report was published in 1963 and introduced to the University of Auckland in 1964, and advocated for using newly founded schools to drive 'radical experimentation' in medical education. However, the report's principles were never implemented in full and dissatisfaction with the early structure of the Auckland Medical School drove a desire for reform. Following its founding the medical school began a period of slow, evolutionary development that produced a medical course and medical school culture that was similar to other institutions.