After a nine-month process, the Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine has received all approvals needed to grow its class size from 42 to 49. The expansion will start with the Class of 2024, which is set to begin study this fall.

When Lee Learman arrived as the new dean in July 2019, one of his first initiatives was to explore growing the class size at the Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine, which is currently among the smallest medical schools in the country.

In fall 2019, Learman formed a Class Size Incremental Increase Task Force to look at possible expansion. The task force featured faculty, staff, and students to get a variety of inputs and to weigh if there was room to expand. A high priority for the task force was maintaining the best parts of a small class size, including comradery amongst classmates, easy access to faculty, and some signature pieces of the curriculum, such as small-group, problem-based learning.

The task force recommended initial growth of seven students – the number chosen because it would require one additional small group for the problem-based learning method.

The medical school submitted a request to expand to its accrediting body, the Liaison Committee on Medical Education (LCME), which approved the request in February. The college then sought approval from the university, Virginia Tech, as well as Carilion Clinic to make sure the additional students could be accommodated. With each partner’s approval, the VTCSOM Medical Curriculum Committee and Academic Committee formally approved the expansion this week.

To learn more, check out the whole article below.

https://vtnews.vt.edu/articles/2020/04/vtcsom-classsizeincrease.html