Objective: To investigate whether the transition from a conventional, discipline-based curriculum to a problem-orientated, integrated curriculum at the University Medical Center Utrecht, the Netherlands, has resulted in students having less knowledge of the basic medical sciences.
Design: Comparative.
Method: The difference in the amount of basic science between the curricula was quantitatively assessed. 37 final-year students in each curriculum volunteered to complete a test specifically designed to measure knowledge of the basic sciences, a few weeks before their graduation.
Results: The transition from the old to the new curriculum resulted in a decline of almost half in the amount of time dedicated to the basic sciences, from 84 to 48 'fulltime week equivalents'. Students in the old curriculum performed significantly better on the test than students in the new curriculum, with 43.2% (SD: 9.56) correct answers versus 35.8% (SD: 8.19) correct answers respectively, which amounted to an effect size of 0.828 (Cohen-d). Yet, on the pathophysiology/pathology subscale, students in each curriculum showed similar performance: 36.1% (SD: 11.55) correct answers for students in the old curriculum, versus 37.2% (SD: 11.66) correct answers for students in the new curriculum.
Conclusion: Students in the old curriculum had overall significantly more knowledge of the basic sciences than students in the new curriculum, except for pathophysiology/pathology, though the time devoted to this discipline in the new curriculum had also decreased considerably.
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