The medical school at The University of Western Ontario celebrates its 130th anniversary this year and welcomes the class of 2015 with the traditional White Coat Ceremony on Wednesday, Aug. 31.
There were 16 students in the first class, entering right out of high school so long as they had their Junior Matriculation Certificate. This year, Western’s Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry is welcoming 171 first year medical students, all of whom have at least four years of postsecondary education.
One thing hasn’t changed though; it’s still a four-year program to achieve a medical degree.
Schulich Medicine & Dentistry is one school with two campuses. Its Windsor Program marks a milestone this school year. All four years of undergraduate medicine are now being taught at the University of Windsor, with 130 students in total.
In his welcome letter, Dean Michael Strong talked about a new vision for the venerable School. “You are joining our school at a time of great renewal,” he says.
“We are focusing our efforts over the next decade to become a global leader in the study of sustaining health across the lifecycle, an effort that will see new initiatives in public health and health policy, a renewed focus on promoting scholarship in all aspects of what we do, and a concerted effort to be Canada’s leading research intensive centre of higher learning. All of this will be based on a solid foundation of excellence in teaching not only at our two main campuses, but across all of Southwestern Ontario.”
During the White Coat Ceremony, medical students will be presented with a laboratory coat. In donning it, they symbolically agree to the professional, social and ethical responsibilities of becoming a physician. They will also recite the Hippocratic Oath.
