Introduction:

Some years ago, the World Health Organization recommended joint studies by students of different degrees in health sciences. Following the motto of 'Learning together to work together', the Faculty of Health and Life Sciences of the Pompeu Fabra University implements this methodology in its degrees in Human Biology and Medicine, where the students of both degrees study a great part of their studies together.

Aim:

To determine possible differences in academic achievement among students of both degrees in the subjects where they were studying together. Differences were expected from motivational aspects: better performance of medicine students in more clinic-related subjects (anatomy or physiopathology) and better results of human biology students in basic subjects (biochemistry or cell biology).

Subjects and methods:

The grades of all the students of the two degrees in all the common subjects were registered during six years, between the courses 2008-2009 and 2013-2014. The results were compared in each of the subjects between the two grades.

Results:

It was mostly observed that there were no significant differences between degrees, rejecting the motivational hypothesis. The few differences found were attributed to specific differences between students of the two grades in specific cohorts.

Conclusions:

The academic achievement in the joint subjects taken by the students of human biology and medicine was very similar reinforcing the interdisciplinary educational project.

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