Yale-NUS and Duke-NUS launch new liberal arts and medicine pathway
Pathway designed for liberal arts students to become doctors
Yale-NUS College and Duke-NUS Medical School have jointly launched a new pathway for liberal arts students who are planning to pursue a career in medicine. The liberal arts and medicine pathway aims to shape future clinicians who appreciate the interconnectedness of the sciences, social sciences and humanities in medical practice. Through the broad-based education at Yale-NUS, graduates will be trained in the art of inquiry, enabling them to think and reason in a way that leads to greater cross-fertilisation of ideas and new solutions in healthcare.
The pathway will start in August 2018 and prospective students can apply for the pathway via the Yale-NUS undergraduate application. Successful applicants will receive an admission offer to Yale-NUS’ four-year undergraduate programme and a conditional admission to Duke-NUS’ Doctor of Medicine (MD) graduate programme. Applicants will be assessed on their motivation for medicine, their passion for community service, and academic and leadership accomplishments and potential. At the end of their third year of studies at Yale-NUS, students will submit a formal application to Duke-NUS for the MD graduate programme to secure their conditional admission. Students who complete the pathway will graduate with a Bachelor of Science (BSc) Honours or Bachelor of Arts (BA) Honours degree from Yale-NUS College, and a Doctor of Medicine (MD) degree from Duke-NUS Medical School.
A Yale-NUS education features the Common Curriculum that all undergraduates take, which encourages critical, creative, and active thinking through a range of subjects including comparative social inquiry, philosophy and political thought, quantitative reasoning, and more in the first two years with no prescribed majors. In the third year, students declare a major in order to gain deep knowledge in one area of study, while taking electives in other disciplines that give them an appreciation of how the sciences, social sciences and humanities play a role in the practice of medicine.
Under the guidance of both their Yale-NUS major adviser and Centre for International & Professional Experience (CIPE) staff adviser, students on the Yale-NUS Liberal Arts and Medicine Pathway will gain academic and non-academic experiences throughout their undergraduate programme that will strengthen their commitment to the field of medicine. Students on the pathway will have access to several programmes conducted at Duke-NUS to prepare them for a medical career. These include an immersion programme designed to provide insights into graduate entry medicine, roles of medical professionals and medical practice in Singapore, clinical observership and medical specialties workshops.
“The College continually seeks to evolve our curriculum to meet the needs of our students and build connections between the study of science, social sciences and the humanities with training in professional fields. We are pleased to partner Duke-NUS to offer this innovative pathway to our students. We hope to nurture future doctors who are strong communicators and broad-based thinkers who will make a difference in their field,” said Yale-NUS Executive Vice President (Academic Affairs) Professor Steven Bernasek.
“The role of healthcare has evolved and it is imperative we nurture a new generation of clinicians to meet the changing medical and educational landscape. In addition to strong clinical skills, our future clinicians need to be equipped with a pioneering mindset and have the capabilities to approach and provide solutions to the complex healthcare challenges facing Singapore in the future. Duke-NUS is excited about its partnership with Yale-NUS as we are confident it will nurture a new type of doctor, one with strong critical thinking skills, curiosity and humanity,” said Duke-NUS Vice Dean of Education & Co-Director of AM.EI Professor Ian Curran.
Besides this partnership, Yale-NUS also partners the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, Yale School of Public Health (YSPH) and Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies (YF&ES) to offer concurrent degree programmes in the fields of public policy, public health and environmental studies. It also works with the NUS Faculty of Law to offer a double degree programme in law to meet the diverse interests of its students.
For media enquiries, please contact publicaffairs@yale-nus.edu.sg.
