Professor Neil Quigley 
Vice-Chancellor, University of Waikato

 Professor Quigley was appointed Vice-Chancellor of the University of Waikato in early 2015. Professor Quigley has previously held positions at Victoria University of Wellington, where he was at different times Professor of Economics, Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research) and Provost, and at the University of Western Ontario, Canada, where he was Professor of Economics. Professor Quigley has extensive governance experience, and is currently Chair of the Board of Directors of the Reserve Bank of New Zealand, and  former Chair of the Board of the New Zealand Qualifications Authority.

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The Importance of Diversity in Medical Education

At present New Zealand has two medical schools but only one model of medical education. That model requires students to move to Auckland or Dunedin, uses grades in the health sciences papers taught by the two medical schools to determine entry, and concentrates education and postgraduate training in tertiary and secondary hospital settings.

We only need to look at Australia to understand why this is a problem: Australia has a diverse range of undergraduate and graduate entry programmes, a wide range of open competitive and preferred pathway channels for medical student selection, and a significant number of co-operative partnership programmes that provide a pathway for outstanding students from universities that do not have medical schools to gain direct entry to medicine. These programmes and pathways provide for a level of innovation, diversity and alignment with health workforce needs that is 20 years ahead of the current situation in New Zealand.
This presentation outlines the benefits of the Waikato Graduate Entry Medical School proposal in bringing diversity in medical education to New Zealand.