Gain the necessary medical qualifications through a university degree
For many health and social care roles, university degrees are seen as an incredibly popular entry qualification for registered careers such as medicine. University degree courses provide aspiring healthcare professionals with a mix of academic learning and practical skills that create a solid foundation which they can build on with practical experience.
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Take your medicine journey to the next level with a university degree
For a long time, the only route into medicine was through a university degree. Although this is in the process of expanding and changing, university degrees can be still seen as the traditional way into the profession. Medicine degrees are some of the most popular degrees for students, and available throughout the country at different institutions, meaning that there are plenty to choose from. Many are Bachelor of Medical Sciences Science (BMedSc) or Bachelor of Medicine BM degree, and they will all provide you with a core foundation that’ll get your career off to a successful start.
What’s it really like?
Medicine degrees aren’t like other university degrees - typically, medical degrees are five years long, though some medical schools offer the option of taking an intercalated year. This is an additional year of study that allows medical students to explore a new area in greater depth, allowing them to gain new knowledge and develop new skills.
After medical school, a two year foundation programme will be completed - this is a general medical training programme, combining work experience and training. During this time, medical students will explore different specialties, and will chose their specialty that they’d like to be training in.
At this point, medical students would undergo specialty training. The length of time that this can take varies on the specialty itself - GP specialty training takes three years, though the length of training for other specialties typically lasts between give to eight years.
Medicine is a challenging career - so it’s no surprise that a medicine degree isn’t easy, but don’t worry, there’s plenty of support on offer. Like many health and social care courses, a medicine degree has both academic and practical aspects to it.
The academic element of the university degree will involve typical aspects of any course - you may write reports and essays, attend lectures and seminars, and take part in research projects.
The practical aspect of the course focuses on providing you with clinical experience. During this, you’ll spend time observing qualified doctors assisting patients, and you’ll work alongside them to put the skills and knowledge you’ve learned into practice. Clinical placements will give you the opportunity to practice medicine supervised, and eventually, engage with patients independently. These can be undertaken in a range of environments, such as teaching hospitals, private clinics, and community health centres.
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Achieve your goals with a degree qualification
Medicine is a registered profession within health and social care. This means that in order to practise, you will have to have obtained a degree qualification although there are different ways to do this. Not only will medicine degrees provide the necessary qualification to progress in this career, but it will provide you with an opportunity to make a significant difference to the lives of many patients.