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Wellcome Library

Royal Commission on Medical Education 1966-1968


IDENTITY STATEMENT

Reference code(s): GB 0120 SA/CME

Held at: Wellcome Library

Title: Royal Commission on Medical Education 1966-1968

Date(s): 1944-1968

Level of description: Collection (fonds)

Extent: 8 boxes

Name of creator(s): Royal Commission on Medical Education

CONTEXT

Administrative/Biographical history:

The Commission was appointed in June 1965 to review medical education, both undergraduate and postgraduate, in Great Britain, in the light of national needs and resources, including technical assistance overseas; to advise the government on what principles should govern future development; to take into account the General Medical Council's review of recent changes in the undergraduate curriculum; and to consider what changes might be needed in the pattern, number, nature or location of the institutions providing medical education. The Commission published its report (the "Todd Report") in April 1968.

CONTENT

Scope and content/abstract:

An almost complete set of the written evidence to the Royal Commission on Medical Education (copy "no. 3"), except for four pieces of evidence given in confidence and closed for 30 years after the date of the commission (these items are deposited in the Public Record Office). Also included is a collection of relevant published papers and reports, including the "Todd Report" itself.

ACCESS AND USE

Language/scripts of material: English

System of arrangement:

The collection has been divided into the following three sections:
A. The Published Report 1968
B. Written Evidence 1965-1967: B.1-6 General; B.7-32 Abstracts of evidence; B.33-306 Circulated evidence.
C. Associated Reports and Publications 1944-1967.

An alphabetical arrangement has been adopted for the main series of files in Section B., according to the list of written evidence in the appendix to the published report, rather than the original chronological order by date of submission of the evidence. However, original file references are also indicated in the list. These include the following abbreviations: MISC = Various abstracts of evidence; WE = Written evidence; P = Publications?; and H = Hospitals?

Conditions governing access:

The papers are available subject to the usual conditions of access to Archives and Manuscripts material, after the completion of a Reader's Undertaking.

Conditions governing reproduction:

Photocopies/photographs/microfilm are supplied for private research only at the Archivist's discretion. Please note that material may be unsuitable for copying on conservation grounds, and that photographs cannot be photocopied in any circumstances. Readers are restricted to 100 photocopies in twelve months. Researchers who wish to publish material must seek copyright permission from the copyright owner.

Physical characteristics:

Finding aids:

Detailed catalogue

ARCHIVAL INFORMATION

Appraisal, destruction and scheduling information:

Accruals:

Archival history:

Immediate source of acquisition:

These records were given to the Wellcome Library by the Archivist of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists in 1986. Prior to this their provenance is unknown although it is likely that they belonged to a member of the Commission (probably Josephine Barnes) who left them with the College. The published report was transferred to the Library's archive collections from the Library's Modern Medicine Collection.

ALLIED MATERIALS

Existence and location of originals:

Existence and location of copies:

Related material:

In the Wellcome Library: The papers of Professor Sir George Pickering (PP/GWP) deal mainly with medical education, including material relating to his book, The Challenge to Education (1967), and to a survey for the Nuffield Provincial Hospitals Trust in the 1970s. In addition, the :Library holds papers of several of the individuals and organisations who gave written evidence to the Commission. The archive of the Physiological Society (SA/PHY), for example, contains a large section on the teaching of physiology, 1941-1993, including the Secretary's file on the Society's evidence to the Commission, Nov 1965-Apr 1967. In other repositories: The Commission arranged for sets of the written evidence submitted to it, together with summary records of the oral evidence, to be deposited in the National Archives, the Scottish Record Office, the National Library of Wales, the Library of the Royal Society of Medicine, and the offices of the Association for the Study of Medical Education. These five sets of papers were intended for public scrutiny. In addition, four pieces of written evidence, which had been submitted to the Commission in confidence, were placed in the National Archives and closed under the thirty year rule (see B.1).

Publication note:

DESCRIPTION NOTES

Note:

Archivist's note: Copied from the Wellcome Library catalogue by Sarah Drewery.

Rules or conventions: In compliance with ISAD (G): General International Standard Archival Description - 2nd Edition (1999); UNESCO Thesaurus, December 2001; National Council on Archives Rules for the Construction of Personal, Place and Corporate Names, 1997.

Date(s) of descriptions: Jan 2009


INDEX ENTRIES
Subjects
Complementary therapies | Therapeutics
Medical education | Higher science education
Therapy | Medical sciences
Therapeutics x Therapy

Personal names

Corporate names
Royal Commission on Medical Education

Places