University of Nottingham Medical School – undergraduate entry

5 Year Undergraduate Entry

4 Year Graduate Entry

Factfile at a glance

How to apply:	Applications for admission to Nottingham medical school for the standard 5-year course should be submitted through UCAS (code A100)
Duration:	5 years
Entry requirements:	A levels – AAB Scottish Highers – AAA IB – 36 points
Entrance exam:	UKCAT
Places available for 2011:	5 year course: 221 (UK) 28 (International)
Applications:	approx 2,400
Interview:	approx 800
Male/female ratio:	41:59
Interview period:	November – March. The panel consists of two interviewers and the interview will last approximately 15 minutes
Offers:	end of March
Degree awarded:	MBBS and BMedSci
Contact:	For full details go to our Medical School Contact Details page
Open days:	26 & 27 June 2010 and 11 & 12 September 2010

Entry requirements

A level

3 A Levels grade AAA including Chemistry and Biology. General Studies and Critical Thinking are excluded. Re-sit candidates are only considered if extenuating circumstances affected their performance at A level.

Scottish Highers

AAB at Advanced Higher with Biology and Chemistry at grade A plus a B in another subject.

International Baccalaureate

36 points overall with 6, 6, 6 at Higher level to include Biology and Chemistry.

The application process

UCAS applications including the reference and personal statement are screened rigorously using a set of criteria to determine candidates’:

Academic ability
Intellectual ability and style
Basic numeracy
Literacy and knowledge of the English language
Communication skills
Personal attitudes and attributes
Personality

Each candidate is also asked to provide further information via an online questionnaire from the University’s website, which to ascertain the following attributes:

1. Communication and motor skills –

The ability to empathise and care for others
Good communication skills (listening and speaking)
Good hand-eye co-ordination, dexterity and precision of motor skills
Personal attitudes and attributes
Motivation to pursue a medical career
A caring ethos – compassion, tolerance and patience
A sense of social responsibility
Self confidence and self reliance
Good organisational skills and time management
Ability to work in a team, integrate, co-operate and be flexible

2. A realistic insight into a medical career –

Experience of observing doctors in their working environment
Awareness of the positive and negative aspects of a medical career from talking to doctors

3. An insight into their own personal limitations

4. Reasons for wanting to be a doctor

5. Reasons for wanting to read medicine at Nottingham

6. Factors which might affect the applicant’s fitness to practice as a doctor, such as disability, behavioural difficulties or addiction to drugs or alcohol.

Candidates with the best overall profile of attributes from a combination of their academic ability, reference and personal statement, UKCAT scores and information sumbitted in their online questionnaire will be called for interview.

The interview is conducted by two senior University staff, one of which is a member of the Admissions Committee. The interviewers probe deeper into each candidate’s motivation and empathy and will form a view on their communication skills and personality. The interview will last about 15 minutes.

Everyone attending an interview will receive a guided tour of the medical school and its facilities.

No offers are made without an interview. Candidates can expect to receive an offer from Nottingham by the end of March.

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Why Nottingham?

The campus at Nottingham is said to be one of the most picturesque in the country and situated only about 3 miles from Nottingham city centre. The medical school itself is integrated in the Queen’s Medical Centre Hospital which is just across the road from the main campus.

Students studying at Nottingham medical school will have access to 5 teaching hospitals in the area, totally 4,000 beds and a catchment population of around 2 million accessing primary care and community health services.

All students complete a compulsory intercalated degree which is integrated within the 5 year medical programme and are awarded a BMedSci.

Students at Nottingham medical school benefit from arguably some of the best anatomy teaching using whole body dissection.

Course overview

The standard Nottingham medical school undergraduate course is 5 years duration and consists of the following:

Years 1 & 2 (pre-clinical)

The first two years are designed to provide an understanding of human structure and function, health and disease, growth and development, behaviour and emotions, both on an individual level and within the wider context of the community. Teaching is largely lecture based with very little PBL learning and students will have early clinical experience through visits to GP surgeries and hospitals to start practise clinical history taking and examination.

Topics covered

Structure, function and pharmacology of excitable tissues, molecular basis of medicine, public health and evidence based medicine, behavioural sciences, human development and tissue differentiation, early clinical and professional development, communication skills, human development structure and function , clinical laboratory sciences, cardiovascular and respiratory systems, haematology, renal and endocrine systems, human development structure and function, alimentary system and nutrition, general and biochemical pharmacology, functional and behavioural neuroscience, community follow-up project (following and recording the progress of a patient in the community for 18 months)

Years 3-5 (clinical)

Topics covered in Year 3

The first half of Year 3 is spent working on the BMedSci dissertation project. Students are expected to learn to appraise scientific papers and use research methods which may then be applied to medical practice. A wide range of subjects may be chosen and students will also need to take a viva exam (oral exam) about their project. The first phase of the clinical years then begin immediately afterwards in March with the last 17 weeks of the year covering the following topics: medical and surgical attachments, infection and therapeutics, and completion of the community follow-up.

Topics covered in Year 4

This is a complete year (40 weeks) of clinical placements where students rotate around the following modules: O&G, child health, health care of the elderly, psychiatry, ophthalmology, ENT and dermatology.

Students spend 4 weeks doing a Special Study Module (SSM) in any area of medicine which they find particularly interesting.

Topics covered in Year 5

Students will undertake 36 week Advanced Clinical Experience (ACE) comprising: medicine, surgery, musculoskeletal disorders & disability and general practice. There is also a further 4 week SSM.

Final exams take place in March and are followed by a 3 month Elective.

Examinations

Progress through the course is assessed by formal exams and on students’ performance whilst on clinical placements. Exam formats used include OSCEs, OSLERs and MCQs, some of which are negatively marked. Mandatory Assessments of Clinical Skills (MACCS) are examined during clinical attachments. Students must pass clinical modules with 40-50% or more to progress to the next year. One opportunity to re-sit Finals is permitted without having to retake the whole year.

Anatomy

Anatomy teaching at Nottingham is amongst the best of all medical schools in the country and is one of only a small handful which still allows students to perform full body dissection. Typically students will work in small groups of 6, with one cadaver between them. Each week the group undertakes a session which begins with a briefing, followed by supervised dissection and then an assessment. Prosections are also used to further learning. Students also attend anatomy lectures.

Teaching

Teaching at Nottingham medical school is based on traditional lecture, seminars, practicals and small group teaching, with no problem-based learning (PBL). The first two years of the course are predominantly lecture based and the last three-years are mainly spent on clinical attachment in a hospital or GP setting.

Electives

Students have a 9 week elective period following their finals in March. There is no limitation on location and students may take the opportunity to go abroad if they wish. When they return, students must prepare a 3,000-word report on their experience.

Intercalation

Unlike other medical schools where intercalation may be done as a separate, additional year, all students at Nottingham complete a compulsory intercalated degree after 3 years, which is integrated within the 5 year medical programme and are awarded a BMedSci.

The pros & cons of studying medicine at Nottingham

Good points	Not so good points
One of the most beautiful University campuses in the country	Some placements may involve a fair amount of travel
Excellent anatomy teaching with full body dissection	Fairly large year groups so difficult to get to know everyone
An intercalated degree is integrated into the 5 year medical programme

The information on this page is correct as of August 2010