Campaign to revitalise academic medicine: Crisis in UK academia affects academic medicine too

doi:10.1136/bmj.328.7452.1376

BMJ 2004;328:1376 (5 June), doi:10.1136/bmj.328.7452.1376

Letter

Campaign to revitalise academic medicine

Crisis in UK academia affects academic medicine too

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

EDITOR—Academic medicine is in a woeful state.^1-3 Butthis is only part of the crisis affecting UK academia as a whole.Pumping funds into academic medicine alone^1-4 without tacklingfundamental issues would only worsen the situation.

"Top class researchers make excellent teachers, and studentsbenefit from the enhanced quality of the education they receive."⁵But the assessment of these two core university activities,by the research assessment exercise (RAE) and the Quality AssuranceAgency's audit and review processes respectively, is totallyseparate, generating serious conflict. Carrying such immensefunding implications compared with the Quality Assurance Agency'sprocess, the research assessment exercise wins over educationevery time. That clinical practice is assessed by a third processonly increases the tension, so the saying "a successful clinicalacademic is one who doesn't see patients" becomes a truism andnot just a pathetic old joke.

Preparing for the next research assessment . . . [Full text of this article]

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Alistair R Fielder, professor of ophthalmology

Department of Visual Neuroscience, Imperial College, Room 9L02, Charing Cross Campus, London W6 8RP a.fielder@imperial.ac.uk

Michael Levin, professor of paediatrics, Gareth Tudor-Williams, senior lecturer in paediatric infectious diseases

Department of Paediatrics, Imperial College, London W2 1PG

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