The School of Medicine of the University of Navarra has obtained the International Seal of Quality awarded by the World Federation of Medical Education (WFME), after the process of accreditation carried out during the last year. This seal is an essential requirement for students from any School in the world to be authorised to carry out the specialization program or stays in the USA, Canada, Australia or New Zealand from 2024 onwards. The School of Medicine thus becomes one of the first centres accredited in Spain by the WFME within the pilot project of the National Agency for Assessment of Quality and Accreditation to implement the international seal, and with the support of the lecture National Association of Deans of Schools of Medicine. In this first phase, the Complutense University of Madrid and the University of Castilla La Mancha have also obtained this distinction.

"This recognition certifies the international trajectory of the School of Medicine of the University of Navarra over the years, with several generations of doctors around the world, practising their profession with the hallmark of service to patients and their families," explains the dean, Dr. Marta Ferrer. "That is why it was essential for us to ensure as soon as possible that all our graduates can continue training and practising medicine in the international arena.

Thus, evaluators from the National Agency for Quality assessment and accreditation (National Agency for Assessment of Quality and Accreditation) and the WFME visited campus of the University of Navarra in Pamplona on 28 April to see first-hand the facilities and the training work carried out at School. Two days before, they met with groups of students and teachers. 

International standards in the new Study program

"To obtain the seal, the WFME has supervised different areas in order to check the development and the assessment of the Education medical programmes, such as the application of the mission statement of the School in the curriculum, the advice, the training of the teachers, the quality, the facilities or the resources we make available to the students", explains Dr. Ferrer.

In the case of the University of Navarra, he also explains that the Integrated Curriculum, the innovative Study program initiated two years ago at partnership with Harvard and guided by the standards of the World Federation of Medical Education , has been highlighted. "A very clear example is the full year of internships that our students carry out during the third year in the specialities of Primary Care, Gynaecology, Internal Medicine, Psychiatry, Paediatrics and Surgery, areas that the WFME considers essential in the training of a doctor".