The Cabinet has given the go-ahead for Singapore's second medical school following the conclusion of talks with America's Duke University.
This brings the graduate school, a collaboration between the National University of Singapore (NUS) and Duke, another step closer to reality.
Deputy Prime Minister Tony Tan said yesterday: 'We have concluded our negotiations with Duke University and the Cabinet has approved the establishment of a second medical school.'
The school will be based at the Singapore General Hospital (SGH) in Outram, but will involve all the hospitals, he added.
Talks with Duke University have been ongoing since 2003.
The new school will take in its first students in 2007. Students need not have medical backgrounds but must hold a basic degree.
Speaking at a press conference after giving out hongbao to 200 elderly people at the Sunshine Welfare Action Mission home in Sembawang, Dr Tan said: 'It will be a big boost to Singapore's medical services, including our biomedical initiative, which is a major drive by Singapore to develop the life sciences industry.'
Just as the NUS-Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) alliance propelled NUS into the top 10 list of engineering and IT universities worldwide last year - ahead of Oxford and Harvard universities - it is also hoped that the Duke University link will put Singapore on the medical world map.
Duke's medical school was ranked fifth among government-funded schools in the United States in 2003 and has a strong focus on research.
Students devote one year of their four-year curriculum to research.
NUS' current medical faculty, which takes in 230 undergraduates a year, will not be affected, Dr Tan said.
The new institute aims not just to train more doctors but also to 'transform the whole fields of medical education, research and the training of health professionals' here. For instance, the school could turn out nurses with degrees like many universities do in the US and Australia.
He said: 'They will be able to perform a wider range of duties in the hospitals, help to take away a lot of the very heavy load our doctors are facing in the hospitals.'
Nursing has 'not been sufficiently appreciated' and needs an 'urgent' boost, Dr Tan said.
'I look forward to nursing being upgraded to being a profession, and those aspiring to be nurses being able to graduate with a degree as with other professions.'
The school may also produce clinician-scientists, or researchers with medical training. This group will give Singapore an edge in 'translational research' - the expertise in turning laboratory work into treatment for patients.
Dr Tan said: 'That is the area we need to develop in Singapore, now that we have laid the foundations for a biomedical industry.'
Details such as the school's fee structure will be outlined by Health Minister Khaw Boon Wan in Parliament, Dr Tan said.
Earlier announcements put the intake at about 50 students for the five-year course.
Following Duke University's curriculum, students will spend their entire third year doing research. They will graduate with a doctorate in medicine and be recognised as qualified medical doctors.