Medical School in The United Kingdom - Admissions

Admissions

In the United Kingdom students generally begin medical school after secondary education. This contrasts with the US and Canadian systems, where a bachelor's degree is required for entry to medical school. Entry to British medical schools is very competitive. Courses last five or six years: two years of pre-clinical training in an academic environment and three years clinical training at a teaching hospital. Medical schools and teaching hospitals are closely integrated. The course of study is extended to six years if an intercalated degree is taken in a related subject.

After successful completion of clinical training a student graduates as a Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery, abbreviated as

• 'MB ChB' for of Aberdeen, Birmingham, Bristol, Dundee, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Leeds, Leicester, Liverpool, Keele, Manchester, Sheffield
• 'MB ChB' for Warwick requires a first degree;
• 'MB BS' for schools currently or previously part of the University of London (Imperial College School of Medicine, UCL Medical School, King's College London School of Medicine, Barts and The London School of Medicine, St George's) and also University of East Anglia, Hull York Medical School, and Newcastle University.
• 'MB BCh' for Cardiff;
• 'MB BCh' for Swansea requires a first degree;
• 'BM BCh' for Oxford,
• 'BM BS' for University of Nottingham, Peninsula Medical School and Brighton-Sussex,
• 'BM' for Southampton,
• 'MB BChir' for Cambridge.
• Queen's University Belfast gives the degree of 'MB BCh BAO' (BAO is Bachelor of the Art of Obstetrics).
• The Bute Medical School (University of St Andrews) offers a pre-clinical BSc or BSc(Hons) with subsequent entry to either Manchester or Glasgow, Dundee, Edinburgh, Aberdeen for Clinical Teaching and a Subsequent MB ChB/equivalent

Applications for entry into medical school (in common with other university courses) are made through the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service. UCAS generally allows students to apply for up to five places at different universities, however applicants for medical school may use only four of these places for medical courses; the remaining one must be left blank or be used to apply for non-medical courses. Most UK medical schools now also require applicants to sit additional entrance tests such as the United Kingdom Clinical Aptitude Test (UKCAT) (required by 23 universities) and the BioMedical Admissions Test (BMAT) (required by 5 universities). As of 2008 there are approximately 8000 places for medical students annually, 3500 more than there were 10 years ago. Medical school is extremely competitive in the UK with as many as sixteen students applying for just one university place.

Other primary medical qualifications registrable with the General Medical Council exist in the UK, some of which have only recently become defunct, and many people in the UK still practising medicine have these qualifications. These include the 'LMSSA' (the licentiate in Medicine and Surgery of the Society of Apothecaries), the 'LRCP, MRCS' (conjoint diploma of the London Royal Colleges) and the 'LRCPE, LRCSE, LRCPSG' (the 'Scottish Triple Diploma', given by the Royal Colleges in Glasgow and Edinburgh).