The university’s new medical school in Brampton, the GTA’s first in more than a century, will open next September with a focus on ”equity deserving” students after the school received preliminary accreditation on Friday.
Toronto Star: Toronto Metropolitan University has announced it will throw open the doors to its new medical school in Brampton next September and will launch its application process within weeks, hoping to attract equity-deserving students interested in transforming care and practising in underserved communities.
The medical school, the first in the GTA in more than a century, received its preliminary accreditation on Friday. The news comes as Ontario struggles with a critical shortage of primary-care physicians. There are currently 2.5 million people in the province without a family doctor.
“This major milestone brings the school of medicine even closer to opening its doors to the next generation of doctors, and to empowering them to innovate, disrupt and drive change within the health-care system,” TMU President Mohamed Lachemi said in Friday’s news release.
The school, which began its plans in 2021, will have 94 undergraduate seats and 105 postgraduate residency positions, and will “foster an inclusive, equitable and community-focused system,” according to the university.
Housed in the renovated former Bramalea Civic Centre, the school will be based in a fast-growing community that has been particularly hard-hit by a lack of access to health care. According to TMU, 60 per cent of residencies will be in family medicine and undergraduate students will be actively engaged within Brampton.
William Osler Health System will be the school’s primary clinical partner but TMU also has affiliate agreements with others including Trillium Health Partners in Mississauga and western Toronto, and Headwaters Health Care Centre in Orangeville.
The school will begin welcoming online applications on Oct. 9. The university said it will take a holistic approach to admissions and not rely solely on academic performance but also life experience.
The competition to get into medical school is extremely high, with an acceptance rate of around 10 per cent. The Ontario government has been investing in expanding the number of medical school spots.
TMU said it will recruit and “purposefully admit” Indigenous, Black and others equity-deserving students in a bid to address the “persistent underrepresentation of these groups in medical schools and the medical profession.”
“We recognize that excellent medical school candidates from many groups face barriers in both applying and being admitted to medical school,” the school’s recently appointed dean Dr. Teresa M. Chan, told the Star. “Our purposeful admissions pathways are designed not only to eliminate those barriers for applicants from equity-deserving groups, but to provide a supportive and inclusive process.”
TMU said the program — whose annual tuition is set at $25,604 — will help medical students become a “new kind of physician.” That’s a similar promise the university made for the law profession when it launched the Lincoln Alexander School of Law in 2020 with a declaration that is was “time to reimagine legal education.”
“TMU has seen success with our inclusive and innovative approach in our law school, and similarly expects to train a new type of physician in our medical school,” Michael Forbes, TMU’s assistant vice-president, university relations, told the Star. “Physicians that are culturally respectful, technologically advanced, committed to team-based care, and prepared to transform our health-care system.”
On Friday, TMU received its preliminary go-ahead from the Committee on Accreditation of Canadian Medical Schools, which allowed the school to formerly open admissions. Full accreditation, according to TMU, is generally granted after a charter MD class has completed their final year.
There are currently six medical schools in Ontario: McMaster, Queen’s, Western, Northern Ontario School of Medicine, the University of Ottawa and the University of Toronto, which founded its medical school in 1843. The GTA will get a third medical school when York University launches its program in Vaughan in 2028.
Janet Hurley is a Toronto Star journalist and senior writer covering culture, education and societal trends. She is based in Toronto. Reach her via email: jhurley@thestar.ca.