Medicine
University of Plymouth
UCAS Code: A100 | Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery - BMBS
Entry requirements
A level
The typical offer is GCE A level grades A*AA-AAB which must include Biology and one further science from Chemistry, Maths, Physics and Psychology. Your third GCE A level can be from any subject area including humanities, languages, music, sport, science and social sciences. General Studies at A level is not included within any offer. The University of Plymouth are committed to widening participation and ensuring that all students with the potential to succeed, regardless of their background, are encouraged to apply with us. The additional information gained through contextual data enables our admissions advisory panel to recognise a student’s achievements and identify their potential to succeed in the context of their background and experience. The contextual data we may consult when determining to issue an AAB offer include: Living in a low participation neighbourhood as determined by your postcode (POLAR4 quintiles 1 & 2). Attending a low performing school/college e.g. 16-18 performance in the ‘below’ or ‘well below average’ classifications. Significant engagement in either our Peninsula Pathways programme or another widening access intervention. Being in receipt of free school meals. Please note that the typical offer is not necessarily the threshold for selection for interview, which may vary depending on the number and quality of applications received by the faculty.
International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme
Must include 6 and 6 at the Higher Level in Biology and one further science from Chemistry, Maths, Physics, and Psychology. Other subjects can be from any area including humanities, languages, music, sport, science and social sciences. General Studies is not included within any offer.T he University of Plymouth are committed to widening participation and ensuring that all students with the potential to succeed, regardless of their background, are encouraged to apply with us. The additional information gained through contextual data enables our admissions advisory panel to recognise a student’s achievements and identify their potential to succeed in the context of their background and experience. The contextual data we may consult when determining to issue an 36 point offer include: Living in a low participation neighbourhood as determined by your postcode (POLAR4 quintiles 1 & 2). Attending a low performing school/college e.g. 16-18 performance in the ‘below’ or ‘well below average’ classifications. Significant engagement in either our Peninsula Pathways programme or another widening access intervention. Being in receipt of free school meals. Please note that the typical offer is not necessarily the threshold for selection for interview, which may vary depending on the number and quality of applications received by the faculty.
Leaving Certificate - Higher Level (Ireland) (first awarded in 2017)
Higher level including Biology and one further science from Chemistry, Maths, Physics and Psychology. Your third Higher can be from any subject area including humanities, languages, music, sport, science and social sciences. General Studies is not included within any offer.
Scottish Advanced Higher
The typical offer is SQA Advanced Higher grades AAA-AAB which must include Biology and one further science from Chemistry, Maths, Physics, and Psychology. Your third Advanced Higher can be from any subject area including humanities, languages, music, sport, science and social sciences. General Studies is not included within any offer. The University of Plymouth are committed to widening participation and ensuring that all students with the potential to succeed, regardless of their background, are encouraged to apply with us. The additional information gained through contextual data enables our admissions advisory panel to recognise a student’s achievements and identify their potential to succeed in the context of their background and experience. The contextual data we may consult when determining to issue an AAB offer include: Living in a low participation neighbourhood as determined by your postcode (POLAR4 quintiles 1 & 2). Attending a low performing school/college e.g. 16-18 performance in the ‘below’ or ‘well below average’ classifications. Significant engagement in either our Peninsula Pathways programme or another widening access intervention. Being in receipt of free school meals. Please note that the typical offer is not necessarily the threshold for selection for interview, which may vary depending on the number and quality of applications received by the faculty.
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About this course
Do you want to make a difference? With patient experience and student satisfaction at its heart, this hands-on, forward-thinking degree will give you the knowledge, skills and confidence to become an outstanding doctor primed for tomorrow’s healthcare needs. Nurturing critical thinking and a caring approach to your medical practice, we’ll help you develop the clinical and communication, teamwork and leadership skills for a top career in medicine.
You will benefit from close relationships with our principal NHS hospital partners. You will practise your clinical and communication skills in the safe setting of our Clinical Skills Resource Centre (CSRC), which features specially designed replicas of hospital wards and emergency rooms, with high-specification patient-simulators. You will also learn from real patients from the outset, with clinical placements starting in the first two weeks of year one.
- Benefit from close relationships with our principal NHS partners – University Hospitals Plymouth NHS Trust, Torbay and South Devon NHS Foundation Trust, Taunton & Somerset NHS Foundation Trust and local General Practices – who have helped develop the course and provide wide-ranging placement opportunities
- Ensure your learning is always current and follows best practice, through the internationally renowned research that constantly feeds into our teaching, to reflect today’s dynamic healthcare delivery environment.
- Take part in expert-led discussions around clinical case studies and the latest medical science breakthroughs, through our Structured Small Groups teaching approach, including Enquiry Based Learning. These are also a great opportunity to learn from other students’ knowledge and experience.
- Practise your clinical and communication skills in the safe setting of our Clinical Skills Resource Centre (CSRC), which features specially designed replicas of hospital wards and emergency rooms, with high-specification patient-simulators.
- Develop your leadership and management skills, essential for effective teamwork and for ensuring high quality patient care.
- Utilise online systems to support your learning including the student logbook, custom-made for our students to access lecture notes, online assessment systems and lecture sessions.
- Deepen your understanding of the structure and functionality of the human body with our Life Sciences Resource Centre (LSRC), which includes radiographic imaging and expert-led life science sessions.
- Choose the subjects that most interest you to study in-depth and build your own interests, specialisms, and research, scientific and analytical skills over the five years of your degree with our Special Study Units (SSUs). There are over 200 to choose from – see a sample list of current SSU titles.
- See how clinical medicine or research is practised in different social and cultural contexts in other parts of the South West, UK or the world, and further your experience through our elective opportunities.
- Explore another discipline at degree level through our Intercalated degrees programme. Our BSc (Hons) Urgent and Emergency Care – developed with local emergency department/consultants, is a unique opportunity in the UK to work in and learn about the area of emergency care alongside your medical degree. External intercalation opportunities are also available.
- All students will spend Years 1 and 2 in Plymouth. In Years 3-5, students will spend at least one year either in Torbay, Taunton or Plymouth, and rotate around these sites. Travel to GP practices from these main hospital sites will also be required.
Modules
In the first two years, you’ll learn the core scientific foundations of medicine within a clinical context. We’ve structured our curriculum around the human life cycle, so in the first year you’ll study human physical and psychological development from conception to old age. You’ll learn from real-life clinical case studies and experience healthcare in a range of community settings, meeting patients and service users, and learning from health and social care professionals.
In the second year, you’ll revisit the human life cycle, this time with an emphasis on disease, pathological processes, and the human and social impact of illness and disease. You’ll do a series of placements in a single general practice, enabling you to learn about long-term health issues and see teamwork in action.
In your third and fourth years, you’ll learn more about clinical practice and spend more time in a patient-centred learning environment. Completing a series of hospital and general practice-based community placements, you’ll gain valuable experience in a wide range of clinical settings and see first hand how the NHS works as a team to deliver patient care. Year three focuses on three ‘Pathways of Care’: Acute Care, Ward Care and Integrated Ambulatory Care.
You’ll continue working and learning in hospital and general practice settings, further developing your communication, clinical, problem-solving and analytical skills. The three ‘Pathways of Care’ continue in year four with a focus on: Acute Care, Palliative Care/ Oncology and Continuing Care.
You’ll now be all set to apply the knowledge, skills and confidence you’ve acquired over the first four years by working ‘on the job’, as part of a healthcare team in action, based in either Derriford or Torbay hospital. You’ll become more assured when dealing with clinical situations, and develop an in-depth understanding of the principles of practice in the NHS. Supplementing your independent learning with a portfolio of indicative presentations, you’ll also have the opportunity to do an elective in a different social or cultural context.
The modules shown for this course or programme are those being studied by current students, or expected new modules. Modules are subject to change depending on year of entry.
Tuition fees
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The Uni
University of Plymouth
Peninsula Medical School
What students say
We've crunched the numbers to see if overall student satisfaction here is high, medium or low compared to students studying this subject(s) at other universities.
How do students rate their degree experience?
The stats below relate to the general subject area/s at this university, not this specific course. We show this where there isn’t enough data about the course, or where this is the most detailed info available to us.
Medicine (non-specific)
Teaching and learning
Assessment and feedback
Resources and organisation
Student voice
Who studies this subject and how do they get on?
Most popular A-Levels studied (and grade achieved)
After graduation
The stats in this section relate to the general subject area/s at this university – not this specific course. We show this where there isn't enough data about the course, or where this is the most detailed info available to us.
Medicine (non-specific)
What are graduates doing after six months?
This is what graduates told us they were doing (and earning), shortly after completing their course. We've crunched the numbers to show you if these immediate prospects are high, medium or low, compared to those studying this subject/s at other universities.
Top job areas of graduates
Medical degrees are some of the most difficult courses to enter, but very nearly all graduates go on to good, well-paid and secure careers in health. If you're taking a shorter pre-clinical course, you'll need to continue on to further medical training to complete an accredited qualification, which explains why a high proportion of those grads are 'in further study' six months later. And at the moment, the UK is short of doctors and we have upped the number of places available, so demand remains high.
What about your long term prospects?
Looking further ahead, below is a rough guide for what graduates went on to earn.
Medicine (non-specific)
The graph shows median earnings of graduates who achieved a degree in this subject area one, three and five years after graduating from here.
£39k
£49k
£53k
Note: this data only looks at employees (and not those who are self-employed or also studying) and covers a broad sample of graduates and the various paths they've taken, which might not always be a direct result of their degree.
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You can use this to get an idea of who you might share a lecture with and how they progressed in this subject, here. It's also worth comparing typical A-level subjects and grades students achieved with the current course entry requirements; similarities or differences here could indicate how flexible (or not) a university might be.
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Post-six month graduation stats:
This is from the Destinations of Leavers from Higher Education Survey, based on responses from graduates who studied the same subject area here.
It offers a snapshot of what grads went on to do six months later, what they were earning on average, and whether they felt their degree helped them obtain a 'graduate role'. We calculate a mean rating to indicate if this is high, medium or low compared to other universities.
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Graduate field commentary:
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The Longitudinal Educational Outcomes dataset combines HRMC earnings data with student records from the Higher Education Statistics Agency.
While there are lots of factors at play when it comes to your future earnings, use this as a rough timeline of what graduates in this subject area were earning on average one, three and five years later. Can you see a steady increase in salary, or did grads need some experience under their belt before seeing a nice bump up in their pay packet?
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