title: Student-selected components in the undergraduate medical curriculum: a multi-institutional consensus on purpose.
abstract: Student-selected components (SSCs) are an established part of undergraduate medical curricula in the UK. Implementation has been against a background of differing educational approaches to curricular change, together with a lack of clarity about their purpose, relationship with the core curriculum and contribution to overall assessment. This has resulted in a diversity of programmes with perceived differing importance between medical schools. This paper documents the approach used by a consortium of medical schools with diverse curricula to develop consensus on the educational purpose and learning outcomes of SSCs. Agreement on common purposes and outcomes was achieved, and consensus documents are reported. These may be valuable for other medical schools implementing any form of student-selected project work. This work will now be the starting point for further work on producing recommendations for assessment of SSCs, which will be applicable across different medical schools.
authors.affiliation: Medical Education Unit, School of Medicine, University of Leeds, UK. d.g.murdoch-eaton@leeds.ac.uk
authors.forename: Deborah
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Murdoch-Eaton
authors.forename: John
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Ellershaw
authors.forename: Anne
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Garden
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Newble
authors.forename: Mark
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Perry
authors.forename: Louise
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Robinson
authors.forename: John
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Smith
authors.forename: Patsy
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Stark
authors.forename: Sue
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Whittle
mesh_terms: D002755:Choice Behavior; D003479:Curriculum; D004504:Education, Medical, Undergraduate; D006801:Humans; D013337:Students, Medical / Q000523:psychology*; D006113:United Kingdom