Message from the Head of School

Dear Colleagues,

It seems like only yesterday that I was writing a Christmas message for this website and now we are over half way through the first semester! Much has happened in that time including the ongoing success of our staff and students who are highlighted in this issue of the School of Medical Sciences Newsletter.

On 4 April the first Phase of IRiS went live and we welcomed the foundation members of our new school-based research team – Katie Jones, Johanna Lundberg and Bianca Brown, with more members to be appointed in the coming weeks. While we are already seeing benefits from the embedding of research support into the Group Services operations of the school, the full benefits of these changes will not be realised until we have a complete complement of staff, and the new University-wide systems are fully embedded. So please be patient, because I believe we have an opportunity to dramatically improve our research support; it will just take some time to implement correctly.

The curriculum re-design of our MEDSCI courses initiated as part of the BSc restructure will continue throughout 2018 and will dovetail nicely with our response to the areas of action raised by the panel that reviewed the performance of the school in 2017. Professor Michelle Glass has, as the School’s academic director, played a key role in leading this curriculum redesign. Michelle’s decision to move to the University of Otago will therefore leave a big hole in our academic leadership team. While Michelle will be sorely missed, we wish her well in her new role. Before Michelle leaves in July we will be organising a school forum to update the school on the curriculum changes and the implementation plan submitted to address the areas of action raised in the review report, which will also serve as a school farewell function for Michelle.

Until then, good luck with those who have are awaiting the outcomes of their Health Research Council grants applications and Marsden grant expressions of interest, while we mark terms tests and submit final exam questions.

Cheers,

Paul