There has been a perception for some time that “academic paediatrics” is in a state of crisis.¹ University departments of paediatrics (child health, child life, etc) have been disappearing, some fusing with other departments and others absorbed into divisions, schools, or larger entities. Loss of clinical lecturers has been one consequence, as universities make high quality research their priority. The warning is raised that if academic departments vanish, the future leaders of paediatrics will be lost.² What is happening to academic paediatrics is not unique, but paediatricians have been surprised and distressed by it. Just when our new Royal College unites the specialty and gives it a stronger identity, we find the universities trying to do away with our academic departments. This has resulted in anguish, wringing of hands, and even shroud waving.

There are a number of reasons for this “crisis”. The demands of the research assessment exercise (RAE), the physical dislocation of “science” departments from clinical sites, and the drive by universities to concentrate on income generation through research to the neglect of the health problems of children, and undergraduate teaching, have impacted on academic staffing.² The pressures generated by shorter specialist training, consequent on “Calmanisation”, European training, and working hours directives, discourage young doctors from pursuing an academic career. The “new” student centred, problem based undergraduate curricula fail to equip medical students for a career in research. The lack of systematic teaching in the basic sciences is in part rectified by intercalated BSc courses, but most …