Erasmus Experience-Faculty of Medicine of the René Descartes University

Hi,

I went as an Erasmus student to study Medicine at the Faculty of Medicine of the René Descartes University in Paris for 6 months and the experience was amazing. So now, I would like to tell you a little bit about how things work there:

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1-The Degree in Medicine

This degree consists of 6 years of medical studies. Everyone can apply for the first year, but at the end of it, they have an exam and only 250 of the people who apply get picked to continue their studies. Then, they do their 2nd and 3rd years, which are the basic sciences' years. After that, they have the DCEM 2(4th year), DCEM3(5th year) and DCEM4(6th year), which are the clinical years. On the 4th and 5th years they have clinical rotations at the hospital, as well as exams; however, on their 6th year, they just go to the hospital.

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2-The Academic Year

Each year is divided into 3 trimesters: from October to December; from January to March and from April to June. However, it is possible to do an extra trimester from July to September if you want to do an extra clinical rotation.

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3-Clinical Rotations

Each trimester you choose an internship in a speciality and hospital of your choice. Each hospital and service is different but you have to get these internships validated and they expect you to be there every morning. The number of hours depends on the service. For instance, I used to be at the hospital from 8 a. m. to 1 or 2 p. m. In addition, you get one holiday-week each trimester.

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3-Lectures and Exams

Each trimester they have one of what they call pôles. They have 6 pôles during their clinical years. They do the first 3 pôles on DCEM2 and the other 3 on DCEM3.

• Pôle 1-Cardiology, Pneumology, Reanimation medicine
• Pôle 2-Hepatho-gastro-enterology, Endocrinology
• Pôle 3-Rheumathology, Orthopedics, Dermatology
• Pôle 4-Paediatrics, Haematology
• Pôle 5-Neurology, Psychiatry, ORL, Ophthalmology
• Pôle 6-Urology, Gynaecology, Nephrology

Lectures: They have 3 or 4 hours of lectures every afternoon (presence not mandatory) which are based on the discussion of clinical cases (they are quite good, but they are in French).

Exams: They have one written exam per pôle with a clinical case for each subject. You will have to study all the cases for these exams. You get one clinical case from the totality of subjects you learn in the lectures and all of the questions concern that clinical case, so if you are unlucky enough to not have studied that particular subject, you will fail.

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4-Social Events

They have a student association and a group dedicated to the Erasmus students called ERASMIX. They organize lots of parties and other events for Erasmus students like picnics, going to the theatre or trips.

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5-Students

French students, in general, are very nice. It depends, of course. I noticed that the further you went on the progression of the degree, the more they wanted to study and not really hang out, especially with foreign students. But again, it depends, because I met some nice people there.

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6-Language

You absolutely have to speak, read and write fluent French because, generally, they don't speak any other language or speak very little English. At the hospital, they will only speak to you in French, and all the lectures are in French as well as the exams.

I hope this information to be useful to people who are thinking about going as an Erasmus student to study Medicine at the University René Descartes. Here is the link to the website of the Faculty of Medicine just in case anyone wants to have a look. If anyone wants me to clarify anything or ask me any other questions, feel free to contact me.

By the way, the person who deals with the Erasmus students in the International Relations office is super available and tries to solve every problem you might have!

Ana