Subject-based

• Areas of medicine taught separately, i.e. anatomy, physiology, pharmacology.
• Suits the scientifically minded.
• Typically traditional, less integrated courses (e.g. Oxford, Cambridge, St. Andrews).

Systems-based

• Each anatomical system focused on in turn, e.g. the digestive system – the applicant will study the anatomy, physiology, pharmacology, clinical skills etc. related to it.
• Maintains awareness of the functionality of the information.

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 applicants have to apply again for the clinical course; for example, at St. Andrews, they only teach the pre-clinical course and applicants have to move somewhere else (often Manchester) for the clinical years. This type of course suits the scientifically-minded student as applicants can lose motivation due to the lack of patient contact in the first few years. This type of degree offers more scope for research 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.