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MBBS - Medicine (Graduate Entry)

Study Medicine at a collaborative and inclusive medical school embedded in the communities of Cumbria, training clinicians who are innovate, adaptable and focussed on the delivery of high-quality person-centred care.

Please note: this MBBS programme is subject to ongoing quality assurance by the General Medical Council (GMC) who are responsible for the monitoring standard of medical education in the UK.

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In Partnership With:

Imperial College London

Course Overview

Study at an innovative new medical school embedded in the communities of Cumbria, with learning opportunities across the region.

The bespoke programme blends expertise from the highly rated MBBS programme at Imperial College London, with the University of Cumbria’s longstanding reputation in training allied healthcare professionals.

You will gain early exposure to clinical practice alongside research-informed medical sciences teaching. You will also complete a community-based project on a topic of interest to you, linked with prevention and healthcare delivery. Clinical skills training and multi-professional collaborative learning will occur across the 4-year programme.

On this course you will...

Study a bespoke, community-focused curriculum at the University of Cumbria and graduate with an Imperial College London degree.
Gain early clinical experience to allow you to develop your clinical skills and professional practice.
A professional development program will support your academic progress and career development. You will be allocated a tutor with clinical experience in Cumbria and be given access to resources to structure your learning.

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Key Details

Recruiting toUK / RoI / Settled in UK
Course LocationCarlisle - Fusehill Street
Various
Off-Campus
Institute: Pears Cumbria School of Medicine
Delivery StyleIn Person
Course DurationFull-time: 4 Years
Course Start PointOctober 2024
AwardMBBS
Open DaysCarlisle - Fusehill Street
All

Minimum entry requirements

2:1 (or above) in a Biosciences or Allied Healthcare degree. Candidates are required to meet a minimum threshold score for each section of the Graduate Medical School’s Admissions Test (GAMSAT) entry exam and are ranked according to this sum.

Tuition fees

£9250

UK | Year

Course Structure

What you will learn

Year 1 will focus on the integration of medical science and clinical knowledge, while you begin to develop the professional values and behaviours needed to become a doctor.

Year 2 will delve deeper into medical sciences with continuing focus on the integration of medical science and clinical knowledge, widening your clinical knowledge, and further building on your professional values and behaviours.

Years 3 and 4 are centred on your preparation for practice as a Foundation Doctor in the NHS.

Year one

Year 1 will focus on the integration of medical science and clinical knowledge, while you begin to develop the professional values and behaviours needed to become a doctor.

“From early in the programme, you will undertake clinical placements and clinical simulation in a range of settings across North and South Cumbria, which may necessitate travel and/or temporary accommodation.

These sessions will enable you to develop your practical procedural, clinical and communication skills. You will also explore the contributing factors to health and healthcare delivery. There will be a focus on the application of research to healthcare delivery.”

Medical Sciences 1
Explore the anatomy and physiology of the major organ systems with a focus on how pathophysiology underpins disease.
Clinical Skills and Professional Practice 1
Develop your clinical skills and professionalism and explore the roles and responsibilities of a medical student and a doctor.
Prevention and Healthcare Delivery 1
Explore the social, psychological, and behavioural factors that contribute to health and healthcare delivery.

Year two

Year 2 will delve deeper into medical sciences with continuing focus on the integration of medical science and clinical knowledge, widening your clinical knowledge, and further building on your professional values and behaviours.

The clinical learning in primary and secondary care settings will increase, allowing further development of your practical procedural, clinical and communication skills.

You will deepen your understanding of the factors contributing to health and healthcare delivery completing a group project in an area of interest to you.

Medical Sciences 2
Integrate the key concepts introduced in Medical Sciences 1 to adopt an evidence-informed approach to managing patients with multiple long-term conditions.
Clinical Skills and Professional Practice 2
Further develop your clinical skills and professionalism; undertake clinical placements across the region, in general practice, community and mental health, and medical and surgical secondary care.
Prevention and Healthcare Delivery 2
Deepen your understanding of the key concepts in social sciences and population health, while considering the practical aspects of applying research and healthcare data to improve health outcomes.

Year three

Years 3 and 4 are centred on your preparation for practice as a Foundation Doctor in the NHS.

In Years 3 and 4, you will undertake clinical placements in clinical specialties, medicine, and surgery, based in hospital and community settings. These placements will facilitate the integration of your learning within the medical school, and in the clinical settings, to prepare you for practice.
In addition to being embedded in clinical teams, a range of structured teaching and simulation sessions will provide you with added experience of unfamiliar situations, managing uncertainty to support you in your practise e.g., making clinical decisions.

Clinical Skills and Professional Practice 3
Experience situational learning on clinical placement across the region, in a range of specialties, in both community and secondary care.

Year four

During your final year, there will be the preparation for practice component. This will contain a pre-foundation assistantship, during which you will have a defined role and responsibilities within a local clinical team where you will participate in activities which are like those of a newly qualified doctor.
You will complete your training with an elective period that will enable you to organise your own extended placement, either in the UK or abroad.

You will need to complete all components of the Medicine (Graduate Entry) programme to a satisfactory standard to obtain your MBBS award.

Clinical Skills and Professional Practice 4
Builds further on the clinical skills, the professional capabilities, and the knowledge that is required for the Medical Licencing Assessment. The module also including a pre-foundation assistantship and an elective period.

Teaching & Assessment

How you will learn

Large and small group teaching, including sessions that will require preparatory work before attending face to face teaching, such as, but is not restricted to:
• interactive lectures
• scientific practicals
• tutorials
• team-based and skill-based learning
• situational learning e.g., clinical placements.
• simulation learning
• case-studies
• flipped classroom
• reflective practice

Some teaching will be delivered by multiprofessional case studies, which will enable you to integrate your scientific and clinical knowledge across different health care roles and settings.

You will also undertake a community-based project that will involve research skills and group work.

How you will be assessed

A variety of assessment modes will be used, specific to the aims of each module in each academic year. These include, but are not restricted to, written, clinical and oral examinations.

You will also undertake Workplace Based assessments, which examine clinical skills or practical procedures, undertaken in simulated circumstances, and/or in a clinical setting.

Assessments will take place in class and/or online; they may be open or closed book. Assessments for the MBBS programme are pass/fail. You will receive regular feedback through formative assessments that will allow you to track your progress and prepare for the summative assessments.

Career Outcomes

Graduate with the skills and knowledge to enter a diverse range of careers including clinical medical practice, clinical and biomedical research, the pharmaceutical industry, scientific journalism, and healthcare management.

Access the specialist careers support from the Imperial College London medical school careers team, alongside the support offered through your professional development tutor and other medical school staff. Including one-to-one appointments, talks from doctors in different specialities, skill sessions, networking events and careers fairs, and much more.

Achieving this MBBS provides you with a primary medical qualification (PMQ), entitling you to provisional registration with the GMC and license to practise in approved Foundation Year 1 posts. In your final year, we will support you to apply for a Foundation Year 1 post through the UK Foundation Programme selection scheme.

On successful completion of the Foundation Year 1 programme, you can apply for full registration with the GMC before entering Foundation Year 2.

As a doctor you’ll need full registration with a license to practise for unsupervised medical practise in the NHS or UK private practice, although regulations in this area are subject to change. Then, you can train as a specialist through an NHS scheme, choosing from around seventy different specialities.

Overview

If you are offered a place on this programme, Imperial College London’s Occupational Health Service will send you a confidential health questionnaire to complete. We want to learn about any health problems or disabilities you have which may require special support, so that we can plan for this before you begin your programme. In accordance with our Privacy Statement, this information may be shared with University of Cumbria for the purposes of supporting students on their programme of study. We are also required by the General Medical Council (GMC) to ensure that you are not affected by a condition that would make it impossible for you to acquire the skills to qualify and work safely as a doctor. We welcome applications from candidates with disabilities and, wherever possible, seeks to provide any extra support that may be necessary. Most disabilities or health problems, even if substantial, can be accommodated. If you have a disability or health problem that may affect your fitness to practise or may be difficult to accommodate, contact the Imperial College London Occupational Health Physician for confidential advice before applying. Age restriction You must be 18 years of age by the time you would start this programme.

Vaccinations for medical school If you are offered a place, you must be immunised against a range of infections to meet health and safety standards necessary for working with patients. You will be sent details of the vaccinations you need with your offer. You should arrange with your doctor or a health clinic to begin this programme as soon as you receive this information, as it can take eight months to complete. Medical students are also required to be vaccinated against COVID-19. Blood-borne infections Chronic viral infections that are carried in the blood can be transmitted during surgery to patients from an infected healthcare worker. When you come to the Pears Cumbria School of Medicine, to comply with NHS requirements, you will be offered blood tests to check you are not infected with hepatitis B, hepatitis C, or HIV, before you are cleared for direct surgical experience. If you test positive for any of these infections, you can continue your programme, but you will not be allowed to assist with or undertake surgery or other ‘exposure-prone’ procedures on patients. This will not prevent you from qualifying or practising as a doctor, except for the restriction on these procedures.

To apply for 2025 entry, we only accept GAMSAT results from:

March 2023
September 2023
March 2024
September 2024

Applicants who do not apply for the GAMSAT sitting by the required date will not be considered.

Applicants are required to register for GAMSAT and to follow all instructions from the test administrator. The GAMSAT results will be made available to the admissions team prior to the applicant’s intended entry to the programme.

Fair Admissions

Applicants who are identified as coming from under-represented groups in medicine will be given emphasis to adjustments, as per our widening participation criteria.

These candidates will have an uplift applied to scores in:

Section I: Reasoning in Humanities
Section II: Written Communication

The uplift will be calculated to account for the spread of scores across all candidates applying within a given UCAS cycle.

All candidates will be expected to meet the same minimum scores in Section III: Reasoning in Biological and Physical Sciences.

Widening participation criteria:

We use two types of data to identify widening participation candidates within the admissions process:

1. Application data will be used to identify candidates who meet at least one of the following criteria:

Have spent time in care under a local authority
Have a home address* postcode that falls into England’s index of multiple deprivation quintile 1

* Home address is place of permanent residence, not term time address.

2. Have a home address** postcode that falls into POLAR4 quintile 1 or 2 and who also meet one of the following four sub-criteria:

Are the first generation in their family to have attended university
Attended an English school in the past ten years where the key-stage 5 performance is below the College’s percentile threshold of 20%
Attended a school in England, Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland in the past ten years where the Free School Meals percentile is above the Imperial College London’s percentile threshold of 80%
Or have at some point, identified as young carers. These candidates will be reviewed on a case-by- case basis with evidence from local council social worker services.

** These candidates will be flagged as widening participation candidates for the purposes of the shortlisting and interview.

When applying, declare disabilities and/or specific learning difficulties within your UCAS application. By declaring information within the application process, the University of Cumbria can contact you with specific information and discuss your needs.

Our disability support teams will work with you to develop your learner support plan detailing your needs and required adjustments, which will be shared with your programme tutor.

Our Specialist Learning Advisors provide:

Support
Information
Resources
Appointments for students with specific learning difficulties

You will have access to a range of:

Specialist equipment
Hardware
Software dependent on your specific needs

If you would like advice about your individual circumstances before applying, please email: cumbriamedadmissions@cumbria.ac.uk. .

For further information, please refer to the University of Cumbria’s Disability Support Information.

The General Medical Council has guidance about individuals with disabilities studying for and practising medicine.

You may be eligible for additional funding via Disabled Student Allowance.

Selection Criteria

Examples of relevant UK* biological or allied health professional subjects as relevant to the academic admissions criteria are:
• Anatomy/Anatomical Science
• Biochemistry
• Bioengineering
• Biology
• Biomedical/Healthcare Science
• Cell and/or Molecular Biology
• Dietetics and Nutrition
• Dentistry
• Genetics
• Health & Social Care
• Microbiology
• Midwifery
• Neuroscience
• Nursing
• Physiotherapy
• Paramedic Practice/Science
• Pharmacy
• Pharmacology
• Physiology
• Psychology
• Public Health
• Radiography
• Sports Science/Rehabilitation
• Occupational Therapy/Health
• Veterinary Science/Medicine

*The above list is not intended to be exhaustive because degrees may vary. There are many relevant degrees, that we are not able to list and for which you are advised to discuss directly with the Imperial admissions team. Candidates with degrees awarded by institutions outside the UK should contact the admissions team.

Graduate Medical School’s Admissions Test (GAMSAT)

All applicants applying to the Pears Cumbria School of Medicine are required to take the GAMSAT.

Applicants are required to register for GAMSAT and to follow all instructions from the test administrator.

The GAMSAT results will be made available to the admissions team prior to the applicant’s intended entry to the programme. 

To apply in 2024 for the programme commencing in 2025 only results from March 2023, September 2023, March 2024, and September 2024 can be used.

Applicants who do not apply for the GAMSAT sitting by the required date will not be considered. 

Contextual Admissions

If you believe you have mitigating circumstances that should be considered in decisions about your academic entry requirements or exam results, we encourage you to reach out to us promptly. Ideally, contact us through your GP.

You must provide appropriate, supportive, and independent evidence. Please note that a letter from a family member or friend will not be accepted.

The evidence must explain:

What the circumstance is
Exactly how it affected you in relation to your studies/assessment
Precisely when it occurred (i.e., identifying which assessments were affected)

It is essential that you apply for mitigating circumstances as soon as you are aware of the problem.

Late claims will not be considered without clear supporting evidence of why an application was not made on or before the deadline.

Language requirements

To be considered for an interview, applicants must attain minimum threshold scores in GAMSAT: Section I: Reasoning in Humanities Section II: Written

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MBBS - Medicine (Graduate Entry)