Toulouse: the four faculties of medicine merge, a first in France
The board of directors of Toulouse 3 Paul Sabatier University voted, a week ago, to create a new health department that brings together the four faculties of medicine. A future campus will be able to bring together nearly 15,000 students. For the time being, the question of the governance of this new entity, a first in France, has not yet been decided. Update with the dean of the medical faculty of Purpan, cardiologist Didier Carrié.
On paper, it’s chosen made. After three years of discussions between the deans of the four faculties of Toulouse (two of medicine, a pharmacy and an odontology), the creation of a single entity, the new UFR (Unit of training and research) of health was voted “by a large majority”, a delegate, this Tuesday, November 2, the dean of the faculty of medicine of Purpan Didier Carrié.
Reference to the vote of the board of directors of Toulouse 3 Paul Sabatier University (UT3), to which the four faculties are attached, which met a week ago. Result: 34 votes for, one against.
The new faculty will take effect on January 1, 2022, but we will have to wait a bit for a health campus to appear, organize the faculties, maieutics, paramedical training. In a place that is still not clear, between the Faculty of Medicine of Rangueil and the site of the Oncopole.
A first in France
“The creation of this UFR is a first in Toulouse and especially in France,” explains Didier Carrié. It took three years of intense discussions, we had to explain. Why this UFR? It is above all to have better readability and functionality within Paul Sabatier University. But also to have more impact at the regional level and at the national, even international level. “
Ultimately, the new health faculty will be able to accommodate more than 15,000 students on its campus, or nearly half of UT3’s staff (around 35,000). And aim for better exposure at the national level, where the Toulouse merger is seen as an experiment which “could serve as a model”, grants the dean of the faculty of Purpan.
“It is also a way for the university, he adds, to win calls for tenders, to have more funding, to develop transversal activities for students. “
As the healthcare professions are in full evolution, the new UFR will be able to bring together many themes common to the three disciplines of medicine, dentistry, pharmacy, research, but also training on the well-being of students, quality of life at work. All of this is common to health students. “
“20% more places within five years”
In fact, more and more of them want to take the medical examination which, with the reform of the Specific Health Access Path (PASS) and the Health Access License (LAS), have for some disillusioned this year in Toulouse. Several groups of parents of students have stepped up to the plate to define a reform that has worked against the candidates.
As a result, the famous numerus apertus (number of places in medicine, pharmacy and dentistry) which has changed very little locally. A situation which could change with the creation of the UFR of health. “According to the expectations we have made, we plan to increase the number of places in the numerus apertus by 20% within five years,” says the dean. Essentially in medicine and odontology, “where the needs are the most important”, confirms Didier Carrié.
It remains for the UFR of health to settle the still sensitive issue of its governance. The elections will take place in three months and no candidate has, for the moment, declared himself, one indicated on the side of the University Toulouse 3 Paul Sabatier. Before the vote of its board of directors, the four faculties ratified their administrative dissolution on October 19.
The future UFR of health, armed wing of the university center of teaching and research of health
The future Toulouse UFR of health, which brings together the four faculties of medicine, will be the armed wing in terms of training and research of a more global project that will be created at the same time in the Pink City, the University Teaching Center. and health research (Cuers). A project led by the vice-president of the board of directors of Toulouse 3 University Paul Sabatier Maha Ayyoub. “It is not taking shape physically for the moment, but the Cuers is a structuring project which will bring together the sectors of biology and health, in connection with the industrial sector, explains Maha Ayyoub. In this context, we obtained financing for a building that will house the health unit, under the State-Region plan contract, on a site that has still not been decided. It will be built on the Rangueil medical site or in Langlade on the Marchant hospital site.