About the MSRC

The MSRC is a committee made up of medical students from years one through to five of the MBChB degree and our aim is to uphold and further the interests of the student body. Much of this is done by representing student views to the medical school via the various management committees. We also have representatives on several of the intercalated programmes offered.

Both MSRC and the School of Medicine consider it important that we, the students, have a voice to express our likes and dislikes about the way we are being taught so that this course can be made the best it possibly can be for existing and future Leeds medical students alike. As medical students, we also consider it important that we have some sort of a say in our education now that we are adult enough to know what works well and what doesn’t. It is through the link that is MSRC that the students are able to have this say. MSRC reps are present on all of the course management teams (CMTs) and influence decisions made at every level. There are reps from each year involved in the upcoming Curriculum Review 2010 and the school of medicine have been incredibly receptive to our suggestions and criticisms regarding our experiences of the current curriculum.

The MSRC has benefited from its partnership with the Medical School in many ways. For example, take the recent issue regarding the timetable. The students were not happy about the introduction of the central timetabling system in September as it was not as effective as the old School of Medicine timetable. By working with the School of Medicine, we were able to break away from the Union’s timetable and were granted permission to run the old timetable once again. If it had not been for our connection with the Medical School, we would not have had the evidence and support necessary for resolving this issue. Many students are often of the feeling that they are left in the dark a lot more once at medical school in that they don’t always know where to go to for help. As a result, many students report their problems to MSRC, proving that we are sometimes the link to the Medical School that the students definitely know is there and feel most comfortable using. Without this link, we feel that the Medical School would not be able to reach the medical students in an accurate way and vice versa.

Another issue was the recent debate over whether to keep full body dissection at Leeds. The School of Medicine was keen to gauge student views and thus MSRC sent out a survey. Student response was over 50% of the entire student body, with all replies being positive towards keeping full body dissection – a useful feedback tool.

How the Partnership Works
As was mentioned earlier, MSRC is made up of medical students from years one to five of the medical degree. The members of MSRC are voted in by their colleagues as representatives of the student body. There is an executive committee made up of President, Vice-President, Secretary and Treasurer, also voted in by the student body but with one year’s experience of general MSRC representation. We aim to have a representative for as many sub groups of medical students as possible and the idea is that the committee will be made up of a number of approachable, charismatic individuals who are interested in making a difference to the way the course is run and who will not be afraid to stand up for the beliefs of their colleagues when necessary. The general structure of the committee is as follows:

• 3 x 1st Year Reps
• 3 x 2nd Year Reps
• 3 x 3rd Year Reps
• 3 x 4th Year Reps
• 3 x 5th Year Reps
• 3 x Intercalating Reps
• 1 x Mature Students’ Rep
• 1 x International Students’ Rep
• 1 x Bradford Transfer Rep
• 1 x Secretary
• 1 x Treasurer
• 1 x Sports Secretary
• 1 x Publicity Executive
• Honorary Reps (The ex Presidents and Vice-Presidents of MSRC)
• 1 x President
• 1 x Vice-President
• Open Seat holders (currently two)
• Editors of the medical school Magazine “Regurg”

Course Management Team Involvement
Each representative sits on several committees e.g. one representative may be assigned PPD and BMS1 as their designated committees. This will mean that this particular representative will attend all of the management meetings for PPD and BMS1 throughout one academic year. The management meetings tend to happen about three times per year unless it is for a module that only runs for a term (e.g. BMS1, Nutrition and Energy) in which case, there is only one meeting per year. role of the MSRC representative is to report the likes/dislikes brought to the attention of MSRC regarding the module in question to the management committee and see what they have to say about it (the MSRC rep will send out an email prior to the meeting to the relevant students asking for any feedback regarding the module and will take note of this feedback for use at the meeting).

Course management teams are almost always understanding of any problems with the module and use the information relayed by the MSRC representatives to try and improve the module for the next set of students. Similarly, the management committee takes note of what was good about the module in the eyes of the students to ensure that the positive aspects remain in tact for the next set of students with an overall aim of making the module the best it possibly can be. This works very well.

 The representative is also often asked their opinion on several aspects of the module so that the management team is able to gain an insight into a student perspective on certain areas of the module that they want feedback on with regard to reviewing module success. Since student performance is reviewed and the proportion of passes/fails revealed in these meetings before the results are released, it is important that the representative keeps this information confidential. Therefore, when electing representatives, both the students and the medical school expect MSRC to be made up of trustworthy individuals and we, the MSRC pride ourselves as being so.

As well as module meetings, there are also regular Phase I, II and III meetings. We try to ensure that there is at least one representative present from each year group making up the relevant phase- ie. not only students currently involved in the phase but also those with retrospective knowledge – ie. a 4th year who can look back at years 1-3 with a more objective standpoint. This way, all issues from the relevant phase may be discussed with the input of all of the relevant year groups via the representatives.

MSRC - Listening to Medical Students
MSRC meets every Thursday and any issues brought to the attention of the representatives by either staff of students are discussed at these meetings. This way, we are able to decide whether the issues raised are relevant enough to bring to the attention of the medical school. More experienced representatives are able to provide their inputs and for example, they can comment as to whether similar issues have cropped up in the past and if they were able to be resolved or not and hence whether or not they should be followed up. Younger representatives reinforce the idea that students want a say in the way the medical school is run right from day one of their medical education and both MSRC and the Medical School values their input. If we do decide to follow up any issues, we are able to contact the School of Medicine and the students via e mail and the students by making announcements in their lectures. It is also possible to arrange meetings with staff members if necessary to discuss relevant issues.

Aside from MSRC representatives, the Medical School allows the students to have a say in who they admit to the course by involving the students in the admissions process. Medical students in the 3rd year of study are able to take part in conducting the interviews for the prospective 1st year medical students. We are appreciative that we are able to participate in this process as we feel that after a few years at medical school, we can begin to see the personal qualities in people that will make them good doctors and it is nice to know that the Medical School trusts our judgement on matters such as this.

As far as how we can improve our partnership with the School of Medicine, we have many ideas. We feel that there could perhaps be better representation of the student body within MSRC. This would give the student body more of a voice and has the potential to make us more successful in changing things that we feel need to be changed. The 1st years have recently elected a new representative and they have expressed the fact that they felt it was hard to decide on which candidate to choose for the position as they felt there were several excellent candidates. They have expressed the desire to have an additional 1st year representative to give them more of a voice and we are currently considering this idea. If it’s what the students want, we will be receptive.

Effective Communication
We also believe that there could be improvements made to the way in which we communicate with the School of Medicine and the student body. We have recently started to use the popular social networking website “Facebook” to discuss issues within the committee and we have begun to discuss the idea of setting up a Facebook group that could involve the students and give them an additional way of expressing their views to us. So many students use Facebook and it is such an effective way of communicating that many students may be more inclined to volunteer their opinions if we were able to set up a Facebook group. The only potential problem with this idea is our ability to keep this group exclusive to Leeds Medics.

The Future of the Partnership
MSRC strives to be as receptive as possible to the student body while at the same time attempting to disseminate useful information back to students in a relevant and engaging way.

Communicating Ideas
One problem however is how to address the issue of communication. At present we rely on a system of word of mouth, or thoughts being emailed to representatives. Although this seems to work, MSRC would like to look to the future and move forward to a more active expansive dialog involving as many students as possible.

One idea has been an online forum-style discussion board. An official online forum - involving MSRC and trained School of Medicine staff - such as this could be kept exclusive and could involve staff as well as students. This kind of communication could make problem solving quicker and more efficient seeing as though staff and students alike are all running on busy schedules all year round. This sort of online discussion forum would provide a continuous evolving dialogue between the student body, their representatives and the School of Medicine, perhaps even extending to graduated or even prospective students. This would be a great asset to Students and School alike.

Skills Training – Mutual Benefits
We are of the opinion that it may be a good idea if the School of Medicine offered some sort of professional training to some or all MSRC members, perhaps those occupying certain roles. After all, we are only students and at the moment we have to learn the trade as we go along. It would very possibly make the committee more effective if the members had a better skill-set in terms of management, inter-personal skills, and business acumen. For example, many ex representatives feel that you only really get a good idea of your role after you have completed your term! If we could get members trained we could improve the effectiveness of the committee. The MSRC exec committee would greatly benefit from some sort of leadership or business training and we feel this would benefit the School of Medicine in turn!

In conclusion, the ideal time for these reforms to be made is coming up. The Curriculum review 2010 is an opportunity to make ourselves heard about what we want to study, but also how we study, and how the MSRC works with the School of Medicine. We have no doubt that we, the MSRC, can maintain our excellent relationship with the School of Medicine in furthering the interests of our students long into the future.

Taken from the 2008 Student Academic Experience Review
Alexander Carpenter MSRC President           Saxon Prentice MSRC Vice-President

Last updated Wednesday 5th January 2009
Disclaimer: The information and views provided in these webpages are not those of Leeds University Union. They are those of LUU MSRC.