University of Otago Dunedin School of Medicine

The Dunedin School of Medicine is one of three medical schools that make up the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Otago. All Otago University medical students who gain entry after a first year "Health Sciences" program, or who gain graduate entry spend their second and third years studying in Dunedin at the school of medicine. In their fourth and fifth years, medical students can either continue to study in Dunedin, or at the Christchurch or Wellington Schools of Medicine.

History

Opened in 1875, the Otago Medical School (as it was then known) initially taught a 2 year course with training completed overseas. 1887 saw the first medical graduate taught solely at Otago, and in 1891 the medical school was formally made the Faculty of Medicine. Until 1920, training took only four years, but was then extended to six.

From 1924, students could complete their last year of training at hospitals in either Auckland, Christchurch, or Wellington as well as Dunedin. In 1938, branch faculties were established in these other centres. Otago's relationship with Auckland ceased after the opening of the University of Auckland's School of Medicine in 1968. The branch faculties in Christchurch and Wellington became 'clinical' schools in 1973 and 1977 respectively, the forerunners to the modern Christchurch and Wellington Medical Schools.

Faculty of Medicine

The title Faculty of Medicine currently applies to an administrative Unit of the Division of Health Sciences which...
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