Why do students not complete a Masters in Family Medicine Degree?

Abstract

Background: The Masters in Family Medicine Degree of the Medical University of Southern Africa is a distance, self-directed learning course that usually lasts between 3 and 5 years. Since starting in 1970-80, more students have failed to complete the course than have graduated. We wanted to understand the students' reasons for not completing the degree Methods: A semi-structured postal questionnaire was sent to all 139 students who registered for the degree before 1995 and who had not completed their degree. Results: The response rate was 38% excluding those no longer registered with the South African Medical and Dental Council. Five main themes were elicited for the reasons that students gave for failing to complete the course: student perceived internal and external pressures, philosophical differences between students and teachers, the difficulty of some tasks, communication diffi culties between student and the university and students' problems with their teachers. In spite of these difficulties many of the students found considerable benefit from participating in the course Conclusions: It is clearly necessary to keep obtaining feedback from those students who do not complete the degree.As the response rate was low and therefore probably not representative, we cannot generalise from these findings,They are useful to respond to, but are not sufficient to radically change the direction of the course.We remain convinced of the advantage of a learner-centred degree as a form of higher education for Family Medicine, but accept that it may not be suitable for every doctor.