Interestingly the biggest hurdle faced so far is that previously surveyed senior students, who are held in high regard by junior students, inform junior students that by decreasing content they will not have a worthwhile degree. Other problems include students of the changed units are insulted that teachers considered previous content overload too difficult for them to handle. In this dilemma session, the issues surrounding this situation will be discussed further, along with more broad-based discussion on ways to encourage students to become willing participants in change. Background Murdoch University provides a 5 year programme in Veterinary Science, and the graduates automatically register to practice as veterinary scientists. There is an entry quota and a large unmet demand for places.
Students are generally high achievers who are highly motivated, with a strong career focus.
The first three years of the programme provide preclinical science subjects, such as anatomy, biochemistry and pathology that are the building blocks for units such as surgery and medicine in the more applied clinical years. The programme has undergone a radical transformation over the last two years. There has been systematic and planned academic staff development that has motivated many of the teachers to contemplate change. At the same time there has been a systematic change where a requirement for learning objectives has been put in place for all units. Through whole school workshops, these objectives have aligned with teaching and assessment methods, reforming the curriculum away from a typical didactic lecture-based science programme.