The students have gained scholarship support to enable them to undertake the research and to write a thesis.
For the research work they will gain a bachelor of medical science with honours degree, as well as their eventual bachelor of medicine, bachelor of surgery degrees (MBChB).
Their scholarship support success and commitment to research were celebrated at a ceremony at the medical school this week.
A medical school spokesman said that the student group’s decision to undertake research for the year demonstrated that there was a bright future for medical research in New Zealand.
The ceremony was usually held early in the year, but was postponed until this week because of the earlier coronavirus pandemic lockdown, the spokesman said.
As well as receiving scholarship support through a monthly stipend, totalling $80,000, domestic medical students have their fees paid.
The latter payments, amounting to about $10,000 a year for each student, resulted in more than $220,000 in overall support being provided for the student courses.
Otago BMedSc (hons) awards: A.F.J. Mickle Scholarship, $600, Duncan Finlayson; James Renfrew White BMedSc (hons) Scholarship, $5000, Shuchen Joyce Guo; L.F. Hall Scholarship, $5000, William Pitts; Marcus Fitchett and Reginald Medlicott Memorial Scholarship, $5000, Christina Grove; Phyllis Paykel Memorial Scholarships, $8500, Kaya Fukushima, Caryn Thomas; Otago Medical School Scholarship, $5000, Paddy Cheah, Marcus Ground, Connor Leadley, Justin Lee, Johanna Mathieson, Kato McDonald, Shakeel Mohammed, Matthew Moore; Tassell Scholarship, $8000, Duncan Finlayson.
