Quality Control of Education

Most schools have established medical education units (MEUs) to provide educational support to their faculty. Furthermore, to ensure the quality of undergraduate medical programs, most countries conduct periodic external reviews of medical schools to ascertain their compliance with accreditation standards. The aims of this section are, first, to describe the function of MEUs; second to propose that they become independent departments dedicated to monitoring the preparation for accreditation through continuous self-evaluation of teaching; and third, to suggest that this monitoring consider a four-tiered classification of accreditation standards according to the strength of evidence for their importance.