Medical training has become a global phenomenon, and the Physician's Charter (PC), as a missionary document, is key to training those outside the Global North. Undergraduate and postgraduate students in the medical profession are sometimes trained in contexts foreign to their social and ontological backgrounds. This might lead to confusion and…

Medical students' transition from high school to university can lead to academic and social challenges, disconnection from university life, and possible drop out. Hence, some medical education institutions use remediation programmes to address these transition challenges. This study used a social learning and integration theory to identify factors…

The under-representation of minoritized or previously oppressed groups in research challenges the current universal understanding of professional identity formation (PIF). To date, there has been no recognition of an African influence on PIF, which is crucial for understanding this phenomenon in places like South Africa, a society in which the…

In concert with global developments, South Africa has embarked on an ambitious set of health care reforms towards universal health coverage (UHC) that necessitate the transformation of health workforce education. This study explored the context, types, and utilisation of decentralised training platforms (DTPs) in undergraduate medical education at…

Peer-assisted learning (PAL) has numerous benefits in medical curricula. In the extended curriculum programme (ECP) at a university in South Africa, remedial interventions, such as same year/level PAL, were implemented to improve academic success. This article focuses on the measures to ensure the quality of PAL as an intervention for the academic…

The recent shift in the field of applied language studies has shown that multilingualism has benefits when used for academic purposes. The study aimed to find out students' perceptions about the use of translanguaging to understand academic concepts. The study used five first-year South African medical students at a South African university who…

The COVID-19 pandemic and the South African government's response of a lockdown required the cessation of all clinical training. Virtual environments offered alternative methods of teaching and learning clinical skills in an attempt to mitigate the cancellation of first year students' clinical visits. The research question of how a simulated…

As the World Health Organization (WHO) announced the prevailing COVID-19 pandemic, the South African government enforced a nationwide lockdown in March 2020. The resulting closure of medical schools necessitated the provision of clinical skills teaching on remote platforms. This presented numerous challenges especially for skills that require…

The highest attrition rates occur among first-year students. Universities have designed different curricular programmes, such as the development of generic skills, to address this challenge. In the medical school at the University of the Free State in South Africa, these skills were incorporated in the MBChB curriculum as an eight credit-bearing…

The wellbeing of sexual and gender minorities (SGM) is undermined by widespread homophobia that extends to health systems, and is exacerbated by medical curricula under-representing the health needs of this key population group. In 2012, under the auspices of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at the University of Cape Town in South…

Writing functions as an important tool that spans various spaces in higher education. Moving away from a 'skills approach' to writing, this article argues that the writing centre serves as an intermediary between students and academic lecturers. The article discusses how the current practices at the writing centre promotes the development of…

Sometimes universities in general are criticised because of impersonal campus environments, or "academic incivility". However, research shows that this phenomenon is more common in medical schools, pointing to increased levels of stress and incidences of attempted suicide among medical students. The decay in humanitarian attitudes and…

This article uses a narrative approach to investigate the learning experiences of third-year medical students in a transnational higher educational setting, specifically during an elective period abroad. The students evaluate their learning experiences in an unfamiliar environment both in relation to previous learning and in relation to their…

Background: The training of healthcare professionals impacts the health of individuals with intellectual disabilities (ID). This study presents an analysis of how medical students at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa, are trained to treat this marginalised population. Methods: This was an exploratory qualitative study…

Pharmaceutical chemistry, medicinal chemistry and the drug discovery process require experienced practitioners to employ reasoned speculation in generating creative ideas, which can be used to evolve promising molecules into drugs. The ever-evolving world of pharmaceutical chemistry requires university curricula that prepare graduates for their…