In September 2003 the UT will start an experimental six-year technical medicine program. In a letter sent May 27th Ministers Borst and Hermans informed the UT that they agreed with the UT's plans. Over thirty years after the cancellation of a medical faculty for the UT, the university is thrilled with the allocation. In the coming months the financial and organizational aspects of the program will take form. An initial intake of 75 students is expected, increasing to 100 per year.
Rector Frans van Vught is convinced that the new program will clean up the current state of medical studies. 'A new branch of scientific medical education will arise which is aimed more at the potential of technology. These times, in which technological developments take place at lightning speed, demand a new sort of physician who will apply this new technology to the diagnosis and treatment of their patients.'
The program will not be training MDs, as the university initially wanted, but rather technical physicians who deal with the technical side of the medical profession. The UT program will contribute to alleviating the shortage of doctors by allowing current medical practitioners, particularly specialists, to concentrate on the purely medical tasks they were trained to do. Although in its April report the Linschoten committee was not very enthusiastic about a possible role of the academic hospital of M³nster, both ministers conceded on that point. They feel the expertise of M³nster will be an important element of the program, much like the cooperation between Medical Spectrum Twente (MST), Het Roessingh and Saxion College in Enschede. Van Vught also expects support from the academic hospital in Nijmegen where the dean of the medical faculty, Professor G. P. Vooijs, is a fervent advocate of the UT's plans. Since Vooijs is about to retire, it is certainly not out of the question that he will be asked to help shape the new program. The rector feels that technical medicine can be housed in the newly formed Faculty of Technical Sciences. 'That is not certain, however; this is merely my personal opinion.'
Meanwhile the TU Eindhoven is not happy with the allocation of technical medicine to Twente. Together with Tilburg they too had submitted plans for a medical program, in cooperation with the major hospitals in both cities. As of May 30, the public information service of the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science could not provide any information as to what the ministers think about the initiative of Tilburg and Eindhoven.
