Scottish anatomy departments: adapting to change

Objectives
To document changes to the academic infrastructure of Scottish
departments of anatomy over the past 20 years and compare the strategic
approaches adopted by each institution to ensure continued provision of
the subject to medical students.
Design
Interviews with principal anatomy staff members to obtain targeted
information (staff numbers, staff recruitment, student numbers,
staff:student ratio and contact hours in the medical curriculum) by
investigating three temporal snapshots chosen at 10 year intervals
(academic years 1983/4, 1993/4 and 2003/4).
Participants
Principal teaching staff members from the anatomy departments at the
five Scottish medical schools: University of Aberdeen, University of
Dundee, University of Edinburgh, University of Glasgow and the University
of St Andrews. Additional information was forthcoming from the
admissions office of each University.
Results
Over the past 20 years the Scottish anatomy schools have weathered a
variety of external and internal influences and each school has adopted
very individual strategies to the delivery and maintenance of their subject.
Some schools have unquestionably been more affected than others but all
have responded in a unique way to the demands of the disciplines they
choose to subserve. In general, each school has seen a decline in the
compliment of teachers (staff + demonstrators) whereas the student
number has increased dramatically. Each department has micromanaged
its proportions of lectures, dissecting room practical time and tutorials to
best fit their student base, staff capabilities and the requirements of,
and/or alterations to, the medical curriculum offered in their institution.