Evaluation of undergraduate medical education - why and how?

The education of physicians both at the undergraduate and graduate level is no longer a matter for an individual professor or department in a medical faculty. The curriculum has to be developed and carried out according to the needs of the society in which the physician is going to function. Evaluation of the educational programme by external reviewers should therefore be seen as a normal part of the quality control process of all medical faculties. The most important part of such an evaluation is the self-assessment performed by the faculty and the students; self-assessment, together with advice from the external reviewers, will constitute the basis for necessary curriculum changes.