Typical Structure of a Medical Course

Medical courses are structured in two parts: Pre-Clinical and Clinical. Pre-Clinical coursework includes academic and theoretical learning and the science of the human body. It takes place in lectures and tutorials.

The Clinical part of a medical course focusses primarily on the practical: applying the knowledge you have gained in realistic doctor-patient scenarios. The Clinical part takes place in a teaching hospital.

Balancing Pre-Clinical and Clinical Work

The way the pre-clinical and clinical parts of the course are integrated depends on the medical school. At some universities you will study the background theory in lecture-based format for up to 3 years before you go anywhere near a hospital or patients (e.g. Cambridge University).

Other universities offer a more integrated course where you come into contact with patients virtually straight away (e.g. Newcastle University).

Traditional versus Problem-based Learning (PBL)

PBL courses have been criticised for the lack of interaction between the students and tutors. Traditional courses, however, have been criticised for "spoon-feeding" students and failing to develop their ability to cope in the real world.

PBL courses are offered at Liverpool, Manchester, Glasgow, Bart's, Peninsula, Sheffield, Keele, Hull-York and East Anglia.

Traditional courses are now pretty rare and the only universities still teaching in this way are Oxford, Cambridge and St Andrews.

There is a distinctive pre-clinical / clinical divide and the pre-clinical years are taught rigidly in subjects. In some of these universities you have to apply again for the clinical course; for example, at St. Andrews, they only teach the pre-clinical course and you have to move somewhere else (often Manchester) for the clinical years.

This type of course suits the scientifically minded student as you can lose motivation due to the lack of patient contact in the first few years. This type of degree offers more scope for academic reading and is generally taught mostly by lectures and tutorials.

The majority of UK schools use systems-based teaching (e.g. Birmingham and Leeds). Seeing the direct uses of the information can enhance student motivation. It does, however, leave the student to make important links between systems using their own initiative.

Many of these courses claim to have patient contact from day one but this varies from place to place and may just be local community visits.

The amount of patient contact increases from year to year and there is still a slight divide between the pre-clinical and clinical years. The type of teaching on these courses is a mixture between lectures, tutorials and self-directed learning.

Intercalated Courses

At some universities the course is "intercalated" and lasts for 6 years. In these courses, an extra degree is earned alongside the medical degree - usually a BSc. This gives the student an opportunity to gain a further qualification and also broadens their research and individual study skills.

Usually you gain this qualification after 3 years of the pre-clinical medical course. Some universities give the student a choice of speciality, some have a common curriculum, and some offer the intercalated part of the course as an option.

Medical schools with compulsory intercalated courses are: Imperial, Cambridge, Oxford, UCL and Bute (St. Andrews). People may choose an intercalated course to extend their knowledge of a specific subject and it may confer an advantage in some competitive fields of medicine; it does, however, lengthen an already long degree course.

Student Selected Components (SSCs/SSMs/SSUs)

The GMC (General Medical Council) realised that 5 years was too short a time to teach the whole of medicine and so identified a "core curriculum" that all medical schools should follow.

SSCs are a way in which students are able to learn topics that are not in the core. They form up to 25-30% of the course at some universities and are a range of diverse projects chosen by the student where they can study a specific subject in depth.

The emphasis is on self-directed learning and developing new skills. Projects can range from sports medicine to foreign languages to aromatherapy.

Elective Options

This is an opportunity to practice medicine anywhere in the world for two months during your clinical years.

Electives range from running outreach clinics in developing countries to accompanying flying doctors in Australia. You may wish to spend time working on a research project (there is often funding for this). Some students find time to travel for a few weeks after their elective. In general, however, the elective is self-funded so many students prefer to remain in the UK.

Click Image to Enlarge

Click here to download this page as a PDF document. To read PDF files, you'll need a free copy of Adobe Reader.

Share this Page...