As one recent admit to the Yale Physician Associate program scrolled through his Facebook newsfeed on March 10, he was surprised to see headlines stating that Yales program would likely be made available online. Since the announcement, this student has chosen not to enroll at Yale.

The day after the Wall Street Journal reported that Yale had approved a proposal to offer an online Master of Medical Sciences program the Universitys first full-time online degree program an email was sent to all current PA students and select alumni confirming the news. Spearheaded by PA Program Director James Van Rhee and Deputy Dean for Education at the Yale School of Medicine Richard Belitsky, the proposed online degree will allow PA students to view lectures and attend discussion sections from the comfort of their hometowns. Yales PA community has objected to the proposal, and hearing the news from the press before their own professors is only one of their many complaints.

Although the online program will be a joint venture with 2U, a well-established education technology company, PA students and alumni are concerned that the development of the degree did not take into account the views of the students themselves.

We feel as though our input is not valued or welcomed, and that we have been excluded from the planning process despite demonstrating interest and being stakeholders in the outcome, reads a collective statement from the PA classes of 2016, 2015, 2014 and 2013.

Van Rhee explained that he thought incoming PA students had been included on the email announcement sent to current students they had not hypothesizing that perhaps their Yale emails had not yet been activated. In addition to apologizing to students, he held small, online town hall meetings with the incoming class to address their concerns and answer their questions. But Van Rhee said he does not share their concerns about the online program.

In fact, he thinks the online expansion will only enhance on-campus students experience.

Described as an expansion in class size, the new online PA program will run alongside the current on-campus program, enabling students who do not live in New Haven to have access to Yales academic resources. Currently, roughly 36 students are admitted to Yales PA program on a rolling basis each year. According to Chandra Goff MED 14, an alumna in the PA program, the University intends to grow that number nearly tenfold to 350 students, answering calls from the medical community to increase the number of primary care clinicians.

A SURPRISING ANNOUNCEMENT

Rumors of the online expansion of the PA degree had begun circulating among current students and alumni as far back as spring 2014, said Goff. But it was only in March of this year that the PA community received confirmation of the program, which includes online coursework, clinical rotations in their hometown and roughly two weeks spent on Yales campus.

A March 10 email sent from the medical school deans office to students and alumni informed recipients that, after six months of thorough study, the school had approved a new pathway for earning the PA degree and was awaiting approval from the Accreditation Review Commission on Education for the Physician Assistant, the national PA degree accrediting agency.

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Online PA program comes under harsh scrutiny