Students will spend five years at the medical school

The Hull York Medical School (HYMS) is a joint venture by the two cities' universities with half of the 130 students based at each campus.

It has been established in answer to a national need for more doctors.

The emphasis is on teaching medicine in the community with students spending up to half of their time in GP surgeries and local health centres.

Paul O'Higgins, professor of anatomy at the medical school, said: "We think this will focus medical learning on the sort of things people go to their doctors about.

Most of the other courses sound book- oriented Chris Ives Student

"I suspect that's going to be rather different from the balance you find in traditional medical schools."

One of the first students, Chris Ives, who is 22 and from Strensall near York, says it was this difference that appealed to him.

"Most of the other courses sound book-oriented but this sounds a lot more vocational, a lot more interesting, more learning by scenarios and problem-based learning," he said.

HYMS has also been taking a fresh look at the type of student it is recruiting.

It is keen on mature students and people changing careers as well as academic high-fliers.

But Professor O'Higgins says there has been no rethink about teaching standards.

He said: "We mustn't forget that all the staff at this medical school have come out of traditional schools and between us we've many hundreds of hours of collective experience of teaching medical students."