Moreover, in association with successfully completing assessment tasks that are also research-related, the data provide evidence for a positive impact on the students' research capability.
Berkeley's announcement comes as other prominent American universities are racing to build closer ties to China, hoping to attract new students, deepen research capabilities and set up sites to train business professionals to succeed in the booming Chinese market.
This study examined whether the self-perceived research experiences of medical students, and consequent research capability, were influenced by exposure to this innovative research and critical analysis curriculum, which incorporated a 12-month community-based research project, and associated assessment tasks.
Our study provides evidence that research capability of medical students can be significantly improved when students exposed to a research-based integrated curriculum are provided with the opportunity to conduct a research project.
It also explains the system architecture and the organization of the Programmer's Toolkit, and includes some examples of how we have used these capabilities to support student research and to teach geoinformatics programming.
Improved research capability among medical students was evidenced by increased scores in various areas of research experience in the context of successful completion of relevant assessment tasks.
While it is recognised that self-assessment tools have their limitations [ 37, 38] the results presented in this study display considerable rigor in demonstrating increased research capability among medical students.
The results suggest that research capability of medical students can be positively influenced by the provision of a research-based integrated medical curriculum and further consolidated by authentic learning experiences, gained through conducting 'hands-on' research projects, under the supervision and mentoring of research-qualified academics.
Furthermore, the study investigated whether such research capability was influenced by student exposure to the integrated RCA curriculum, which incorporated a 12-month regional/rural community-based research project as part of their phase 3 clinical placements.
