At the last board meeting (April 2009), ESU delegates welcomed the International Federation of Medical Students Associations (IFMSA) as an associate member. Medical students are all-too- often underrepresented in local and national student unions because it is common that their studies are separate from the rest of the university. This makes our new connection to IFMSA particularly important, due to its strong contacts with both national and local medical student associations. Together with the dental students’ association and the pharmacy students’ association which are existing associate members, ESU now works together with the strongest players in medical higher education, enabling us to improve the integration of the specific needs of all medical students into our policies and activities.
As a starting point, ESU sent David Troxler, who studies medicine himself, as a representative to IFMSA’s Bologna Process workshop which took place form 6-10 July in Cordoba, Spain. David presented the ESU Policy Paper "Towards 2020: A Student-Centred Bologna Process" (adopted in Sofia, November 2008) and contributed to the task of producing a similar paper for IFMSA.
This initial collaboration was appreciated by all – enabling participants to understand alternative approaches and improve IFMSA policy on the basis of ESU’s experience and knowledge. ESU is delighted to be able to contribute to improved representation for the millions of medical students in Europe and would like to thank IFMSA once again for their invitation and for a very productive workshop.
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