About the College of Physicians and Surgeons
Philosophy
The College of Physicians and Surgeons is guided by the principle that medical education is university education.
The acquisition of knowledge and skills is important in professional education, but far more vital is a profound understanding of the science, the art, and the ethic within which both knowledge and skill are applied. As a part of Columbia University, the College builds its curriculum, selects its officers of instruction, and marshals its enormous resources of equipment and clinical experience to develop in the student this understanding of medicine.
Within the curriculum for the M.D. degree is the fundamental knowledge from which the natural bent is discovered toward general or special practice, research, teaching, or administration. The postgraduate programs of the College provide training in the specialties, help the graduate physician to keep abreast of new knowledge and support the research from which the physician's knowledge develops.
History
Columbia University began as King's College, which was founded in 1754 by royal grant of George II of England "for the instruction of youth in the Learned Languages, and the Liberal Arts and Sciences". The American Revolution interrupted its program, but in 1784 it was reopened as Columbia College. In 1912 the title was changed to Columbia University in the City of New York.
King's College organized a medical faculty in 1767, and was the first institution in the North American Colonies to confer the degree of Doctor of Medicine. The first graduates in medicine from the College were Robert Tucker and Samuel Kissarn, who received the degree of Bachelor of Medicine in May 1769, and that of Doctor of Medicine in May 1770 and May 1771, respectively. Instruction in medicine was given until interrupted by the Revolution and the occupation of New York by the British, which lasted until November 25, 1783. In 1784 instruction was resumed in the academic departments, and in December of the same year the medical faculty was reestablished.
In 1814 the medical faculty of Columbia College was merged with the College of Physicians and Surgeons, which had obtained an independent charter in 1807. In 1860, by agreement between the Trustees of the two institutions, the College of Physicians and Surgeons became the Medical Department of Columbia College, from that time on the diplomas of the graduates were signed by the President of Columbia College as well as by the President of the College of Physicians and Surgeons. The connection was only a nominal one, however, until 1891, when the college was incorporated as an integral part of the University.
Since September 1917, women have been admitted to the College on the same basis as men.
Departments at P&S:
Institutes and Centers:
Degrees Offered:
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