The Pulse Our duty is clear; we must provide our students with curricular education in this area… but we must also encourage our world class researchers to pivot their focus to address the myriad challenges the field throws up thus hard to develop strong personal relationships with students. This does not explain or excuse such divergence on aspirations for the future. It is certainly right and proper for a research driven university to focus on areas of research strengths including winning prestigious grants, doing ground- breaking research, publishing in top journals, collaborating with industry in terms of policy and commercialisation and in general developing and maintaining the reputation of the School of Medicine as the best medical school in the country. But we must not, as a consequence, neglect our priority project which is to teach and inspire future healthcare workers. I think that teaching can be taken for granted in the institution of Trinity College as a whole. I’m working hard to make sure to listen to what students want and how they want to be taught. I want to develop an inclusive listening, creative, teaching organisation. The future of the planet is a major concern for the generation of students we serve. Our legacy will be to try and leave them a planet that is viable, as well as just and compassionate. Students are telling us they want us to do something, anything to be part of the many solutions that must be implemented. I personally don’t think we’ve been as responsive to those concerns as we should have. My solution is to set up a student-led committee in the School to be advised by faculty members with expertise and interest. The first meeting took place on 24 June 2024 and we are planning an international conference in the spring of 2025. We will be asking the committee to advise on the curricular reform process and I will also be encouraging them to see the connections between climate stability, human displacement, conflict, pandemic, animal health and the well-being economy. Trinity’s School of Medicine received a ‘C’ in its 2023 planetary health report card. While we got a ‘B’ for curriculum, we got ‘C’s for interdisciplinary research, support for student-led initiatives and campus sustainability, we got an ‘F’ for community outreach and advocacy, how will you improve on this? Trinity-College-Dublin_2023_MED.pdf (phreportcard.org) There are a number of important considerations Summer Edition 2024 5
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