Information about Admissions to Medicine
Thinking about Studying Medicine?
Medicine is a challenging but rewarding career that offers an enormous variety of possible career paths, almost 100% employment after graduation and excellent remuneration. So, what do you need to think about before applying to study medicine?
Firstly, you need to decide to which medical schools you will apply.
If you think you might want to study medicine here at Lancaster, you'll need to find out more about our medical degree programme. You can find out about our students' experiences of studying medicine at Lancaster or ask them a specific question.
Finally, you will need to know how we go about selecting candidates to offer places to study medicine here at Lancaster.
Below you will find information relating to all three topics: An audio recording, with accompanying slide presentation, for all three topics plus more detail about the Selection process in the following paragraphs.
The Selection Process in brief
All UCAS forms are read and assessed by a panel of Lancaster Medical School (LMS) staff to determine which applicants will be invited for interview. This is a two stage process: initially academic qualifications are considered and only those applicants whose achieved or predicted grades fulfil our entry requirements will progress to stage 2. In stage 2, LMS staff assess your personal statement and those applicants who have most ably demonstrated that they possess the appropriate experience, aptitudes and communication skills will be invited to attend for interview.
Multiple Mini Interviews (MMI)
From Autumn 2010, the interview process for entry to study medicine at Lancaster has consisted of a Multiple Mini Interview (MMI). The MMI consists of 12 different “stations”, most of which will be 5 minutes long. Some of the stations will consist of a short interview, where you will be asked questions related to your career choice. At others, you may be asked to read a short paragraph or watch a short video clip, take notes and then discuss at a subsequent station. One station will involve group work and will assess your suitability for our problem-based learning curriculum. Applicants who are selected for interview will be sent more detailed information nearer the time.
Admissions Information
Selection for Medical School implies selection for the medical profession. All medical school admissions teams are tasked with selecting those applicants with the potential to be the best doctors. We are guided by current thinking on what makes a good doctor, for example The Role of the Doctor Consensus Statement, agreed in 2008, outlines the unique combination of attributes and abilities doctors require. Lancaster Medical School recognises the importance of a transparent and valid selection process and agrees with the Medical Schools Council's Guiding Principles to the Admission of Medical Students, revised in 2010 (see below). When taking the decision to embark on a career in medicine it is advisable to consider the range of different careers within the medical profession and the education and training these involve. The majority of UK graduates will go on to work as hospital doctors or in primary care for the NHS. Significantly, up to 50% of all UK graduates become general practitioners, providing comprehensive health care for the local community. There is a broad spectrum of careers across medical, surgical and other specialties, and it should be noted that whilst many of these specialties have historically been hospital based, healthcare is moving towards a more community centred model of delivery and consequently doctors will increasingly be expecting to deliver healthcare in a range of settings.
Below you will find audio recordings, with accompanying slide presentations, for three topics: Choosing a Medical School; The Lancaster MBChB Degree Programme and our Selection Procedure. You can listen to the audio recording or look at the presentation. Or you could look and listen at the same time.
Although the 3 different audio recordings do follow on from each other, you can also listen to them independently. Each MP3 file is approximately 10 minutes in duration.
Most computers will open PDF documents automatically, but you may need to download Adobe Acrobat Reader.
Choosing a Medical School
Choosing a Medical School
PDF Presentation
Choosing a Medical School
MP3 Podcast - 10 minutes 57 seconds - 10 MB Download
Lancaster MBChB Degree Programme Structure
Lancaster MBChB Degree Programme Structure
PDF Presentation
Lancaster MBChB Degree Programme Structure
MP3 Podcast - 10 minutes 37 seconds - 9.72 MB Download
Selection Procedure
Selection Procedure
PDF Presentation
Selection Procedure
MP3 Podcast - 9 minutes 31 seconds - 8.7 MB Download
I hope you find this information helpful and would welcome your feedback about how useful they were. Send emails with feedback and suggestions for other topics to be covered on this page to: Dr Karen Grant