How we derived a core curriculum: from institutional to national--Ankara University experience

As the first phase of a major curricular change in a large medical school the core curriculum had to be determined. The criteria for the inclusion of topics in the core curriculum were defined for both clinical and basic sciences. A large group of faculty members have worked in 11 sub-groups to determine the core knowledge, skills and attitudes for undergraduate medical students. During this work 608 clinical topics have been reviewed. Four-hundred and eighty five of them (79%) have been included in the core curriculum. Clinical and basic science knowledge, skills and attitudes relevant to these topics have been defined and classified. A total of 1610 cognitive, 428 psychomotor skills and 247 attitudes have been named. Thus the core curriculum defined is not just a set of diseases, conditions and symptoms but also includes the details of each and every topic. Starting from this point the medical school has participated actively in defining the national core curriculum, which has also been determined according to the same criteria.