Keele University offers a very special experience. Our beautiful and spacious green campus is home to a genuine and supportive community of students and staff as well as high quality teaching and research. There is a lively social life centred on the Students’ Union, sports and societies. We don’t think you’ll find a friendlier university or one where you’d have more fun.

2

05 06 08 12 13 14

22 2726252423

28 28 29 30 32

The MedicalSchool at Keele

Assessments Activities for schools and colleges

Studentprofiles

Healthfoundationyear

Our staff

Placements in thecommunity

Medicalresearchpathway

Intercalateddegree

StudentSelectedComponents

Studentsupport

Careerguidance

Tuitionfees andbursaries

Aftergraduation

How toapply

Campusmap

Welcome

Information provided in this brochure is accurate at the time of going to press (November 2013) but it may be subject to change. Please visit: www.keele.ac.uk/health/schoolofmedicine or contact our admissions office for the most up-to-date details. Acknowledgements: A special thanks to all the staff and students who helped with this production.

21

Clinicalplacements

Studentgroups

27

See our 5 minute School of Medicineoverview movies at our home page:www.keele.ac.uk/health/schoolofmedicine

3

Rated 2nd in the Sunday Times league tablefor medicine in 2012

Rated 10th in the Guardian League forMedicine 2013

Rated 2nd in the 2013 National Student Surveyof UK medical schools

4

On behalf of all staff and students thank you for your interest in Keele School of Medicine. We offer you an outstanding combination of a new distinctive curriculum, excellent educational and clinical resources and a friendly and safe environ-ment where staff and patients are keen to help you learn. The Keele experience is different from most UK medical schools. We have a relatively small student intake, an attractive supportive campus com-munity with enthusiastic and com-mitted staff. In the 2013 National Student Survey our graduate rating ranked us as the second best of all UK medical schools. How do we achieve this? Medicine is a very diverse profession with an expanding range of career options. You will have a strong grounding in the basic and social sciences along-side a high level of patient contact. This provides a full understanding of patients’ experiences of the NHS and an appreciation of the increas-ing diverse population needs. We aim to train excellent clinicians, well prepared for future practice andthe increasing globalisation of health care.

Our curriculum offers you:• Integration of basic scienceand clinical learning throughoutthe course• Excellent facilities including state of the art anatomy training • Early clinical involvement to an-chor learning in real practice • Community and hospital place-ments across Staffordshire and Shropshire• A variety of learning methods including problem-basedlearning (PBL)• Small tutor supported groups • Substantial student choice toexplore personal interests and career options • A faculty-wide focus on interpro-fessional learning • Opportunities to intercalate with a BSc degree or Masters degree in health related fields • A strong student support system

It is important to choose a medical school that provides the right bal-ance of personal and professional development and enables you to graduate as a fully competent and caring clinician.

“I knew it was going to be hard work, but what is really nice is simply the culture of the Univer-sity and the way in which we are taught makes it fun and it makes it feel safe while you’re learning some incredibly difficult things.” Hayley Bowyer (3rd year medical student). Hear Hayley’s full views at: http://youtu.be/7gz7VwbjFO8.

Please take some time to explore our website, come to our open days or telephone us with your queries. We would be delighted to welcome you most warmly to Keele.

We all wish you the best for your aspirations to study medicine.

Professor Val WassHead of School of Medicine

Our Key Features include:

• Effective learning: Modern, spiral, integratedcurriculum using a blend of learning methods• Extensive clinical experience: 100 weeks• Student centred learning with emphasis on feedback and student engagement• Excellent modern facilities across two counties, four hospitals, 100+ GP surgeries• Promotion of professional, socially responsible, globally-aware attitudes

5

6

7

Our facilities

Keele School of Medicine is spread across various sites in Stafford-shire and Shropshire. The three principal buildings are located at the University main campus and at the University Hospital of North Staffordshire (UHNS) campus three miles away. We also have facilities at the Shrewsbury and Telford Hospitals NHS Trust in Shropshire, at North Staffordshire Combined Healthcare NHS Trust, at Mid Staffordshire NHS Foun-dation Trust, and at the South Staffordshire and Shropshire NHS Foundation Trust at both Stafford and Shrewsbury. You can expect to spend varying periods of time at all of these sites during your five years on the course.

The David Weatherall (Medical School) building at Keele campus opened in 2003 and has been

extended in 2013. It includes a large lecture theatre, seminar rooms, IT laboratory, a state of the art anatomy training suite, multi-user laboratories, a resource room, student common room and refreshment area. In addition, the university provides library and information services in the nearby Information Services building.

At the University Hospital of North Staffordshire campus, there are two educational buildings - the Keele University Medical School (UHNS hospital campus) and the Clinical Education Centre (CEC). As well as the usual teach-ing rooms, the hospital campus provides a multi-professional Health Library and superb clinical skills laboratory facilities.

The Harplands Hospital (North Staffordshire Combined Health-care Trust) building behind the Clinical Education Centre, includes a dedicated student common room/IT facility, seminar rooms and a small skills laboratory. At the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital, the Learning Centre was opened in 2008. It contains seminar rooms, a clinical skills labora-tory, a student common room/resource room, and an integrated Health Library. New, high stand-ard living accommodation for students opened in August 2009 at Shrewsbury.

At Stafford, Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust has the Postgraduate Medical Centre and Oakridge which provide a formal lecture theatre, teaching rooms, IT and library facilities and a skills laboratory. Residential accom-modation is also available on site. Facilities at the South Stafford-shire and Shropshire Foundation Trust at St George’s Hospital site in Stafford include a student common room and IT facilities, administrative offices and teach-ing rooms.

You can view short movies of life at Keele School of Medicine or take a virtual tour of the school on our website at: www.keele.ac.uk/health/schoolofmedicine.

THE MEDICAL SCHOOL ATKEELE UNIVERSITY

8

9

The Keele approach to the medical curriculum

The MBChB Honours Degree at Keele University is designed to ensure you, as a graduate, meet the necessary standards in terms of knowledge, skills and atti-tudes that new doctors should have and that you become an excellent clinician. The curricular outcomes for undergraduate medical education are set out in Tomorrow’s Doctors (GMC, 2009) (see: www.gmc-uk.org/education/undergraduate/tomorrows_doc-tors_2009.asp), and the principles of professional practice as set out in the GMC document Good Medi-cal Practice (GMC, 2013). They are listed below:• Good clinical care – as a Medical Student you must practise good standards of clinical care, recog-nise and practise within the limits of your competence, and make sure that you do not put patients at unnecessary risk• Maintaining good medical prac-tice – Doctors and students must keep up to date with develop-ments in their field and main-tain their knowledge and skills throughout their careers• Relationships with patients - you

must develop and maintain suc-cessful relationships with patients based on openness, trust and good communication• Working with colleagues - you must work effectively with col-leagues (from all health and social care professions)• Teaching and training, apprais-ing and assessing - If as a doctor or student you have teaching responsibilities, you must develop the skills, attitudes and practices of a competent teacher• Probity - you must be honest• Health - you must not allow your own health or condition to put patients and oth-ers at risk.

EducationalStrategies

The Keele curriculum is a modern, spiral, highly-integrated medi-cal curriculum that ensures you achieve these outcomes. From Year 1, it combines a range of learning strategies, including early clinical experience, inte-grated communication and clinical skills teaching, practical sessions including dissection, problem-

based learning, lectures and seminars. You will have extensive experience of clinical placements in both primary and secondary care settings and in the commu-nity sector and, by following our “spiral” curriculum, you will be able to revisit topics at different points in the course, first learning the relevant scientific foundations before developing an understand-ing of the pathological and clinical aspects of that topic.

Themes

You will experience integration at all levels, guided by five themes which run throughout the whole course. They are :

1. Scientific Basis of Medicine2. Clinical, Communication and Information Management Skills

3. Individual, Community, and Population Health4. Quality and Efficiency in Health Care5. Ethics, Personal & Professional Development.

Interprofessional Education

You will experience interprofes-sional learning at several stages of the course, commencing in Year 1 with a series of interprofessional group activities involving medical,

nursing, pharmacy and physiotherapy students at Keele. These sessions are designed to promote not only mutual un-derstanding of roles but also effective collaboration, both of which are essential to developing the

professional teamwork required in modern, high-quality health care. In the later years of the course, you will expand your involvement in this way of learning by work-ing with students on other health professional courses and by you taking part in collaborative clinical assessments.

Student Selected Components

The SSC programme fosters diversity enabling you to pursue your own interests. During each academic year of the course, you will be offered a choice of learn-ing experiences that allows either breadth (including exposure to wider areas of clinical practice and also the opportunity to learn within the context of, for exam-ple, the Arts and Humanities) or depth (more specialist clinical knowledge). Over the whole five years, you will be able to gain a diverse range of such experiences, building on natural aptitudes and providing for a basis for future career interest. Further opportuni-ties for diversity are encouraged through intercalation.

Intercalation

You can opt to take a year out of your undergraduate medical studies in order to study a subject area in greater depth before returning to complete the medical course. An intercalated degree provides you with an opportunity to pursue an additional qualifica-tion in a medicine-related subject that interests you, acquire a better

10

understanding of basic biomedical sciences, medical humanities and research methodologies, publish scientific papers and present at conferences. Opportunities avail-able include studying at Masters level after Year 4.

Overall structure

The overall structure of the course comprises five compulsory mod-ules taken over five years. Please see the chart on the right for more details. Please note that this chart is an indication of course content and some of the detail may change.

Integrated curricular themes (present inall phases)

Years and units

Scientific basis of medicine

Clinical, communica-tion, and information management skills

Individual, community, and population health

Quality and efficiency in healthcare

Ethics, personal& professionaldevelopment

Year 1: Level 1: Challenges to health(Credit value: 120 credits)

Unit 1 Emergencies

Unit 2 Infection & immunity

Unit 3 Cancer

Unit 4 Ageing

Unit 5 Lifestyle

Unit 6 Complex family

SSC Student Selected Component

Year 2: Level 2: Integrated clinical pathology 1 (Credit value: 120 credits)

Unit 1 Inputs and outputs

Unit 2 Movement

Unit 3 Life support and defence

Unit 4 Sensation

SSC Student Selected Component

Opportunity for intercalation at Bachelors Level (end of Year 2)

Year 3: Level 3 Integrated clinical pathology 2 (Credit value: 120 credits)

Unit 1 Surgical patient

Unit 2 Medical patient 1

Unit 3 Young patient

Unit 4 Elderly patient

Unit 5 Medical patient 2

Unit 6 Mental health

SSC Student Selected Component

CCS Consolidation of Clinical Skills

Integrated curricular themes (present inall phases)

Years and units

Scientific basis of medicine

Clinical, communica-tion, and information management skills

Individual, community, and population health

Quality and efficiency in healthcare

Ethics, personal& professionaldevelopment

Year 4: Level 3: Advanced clinical experience (Credit value: 120 credits)

Unit 1 Integrated Medical Practice 1 (Medicine & Neuroscience)

Unit 2 Integrated Medical Practice 2 (Medicine & Musculoskeletal)

Unit 3 Surgery

Unit 4 Women’s Health

Unit 5 Child Health

Unit 6 Mental Health

Unit 7 Higher consultation skills (placement in General Practice)

SSC Student Selected Component

Opportunity for intercalation at Masters Level (end of Year 4)

Year 5: Level 3: Preparation forprofessional practice(Credit value: 120 credits)

Unit 1 GP assistantship

Unit 2 Acute and critical care (emergency medi-cine, Critical Care Unit & anaesthesia)

Unit 3 Medical student assistantship

Unit 4 Surgical student assistantship

Unit 5 Elective period

Final preparation for professional practice week

11

The assessments have two main aims: firstly to help you achieve the learning objectives of the course (formative) and secondly to certify the achievement of those learning objectives (sum-mative).

Formative assessment is a key, integrated component of the course and there is regular web-based material on which you can assess your understanding.

These assessments will reinforce what you need to know, reassure those students who are on track and point out any areas which require extra study. They will help to guide professional develop-ment. All the different methods of testing in this formative way will be met before the same method is encountered in a summative examination.

We use a variety of testing meth-ods at Keele. We will test your ability to apply knowledge with written methods such as Multi-ple Choice Questions, Extended

Matching Questions and Key Feature Problems. We will exam-ine your ability to comprehend a medical text and paraphrase it in lay terms. From an early stage in the course we will examine your practical and clinical skills in the laboratory and clinical arena. These tests include OSSEs (Objec-tive Structured Skills Examination) and OSCEs (Objective Structured Clinical Examination). You will have an opportunity to learn and practise these skills and receive feedback throughout the learning year and prior to the summative exams.

You will keep a portfolio detailing the development of your clini-cal practice including reflections on the new situations that are encountered. This will be linkedto appraisal. You will alsoparticipate in Multi-Source Feed-back that will help you understand how to perform as a teammember and to assist indeveloping professionalism.

In the final year of the course (year 5), most of the assessments will be “real life” examinations of clinical performance. This will help us all to know that you are ready to take on the role of aFoundation Year doctor.

12

ASSESSMENTS

Pupils from schools and colleges can visit the School of Medicine and take part in activities on a number of occasions throughout each year, including the Medical Summer School in July. There are also times when careers advisers are invited to visit and obtain the latest information about admis-sions. Our medical students are also involved in working with local schools through MedPath activities.

Medicine careers day

We shall be hosting a one-day careers conference for students in years 10-12 entitled ‘So you want to be a doctor?’ on Wednesday 12 March 2014. For further infor-mation and to book your place, please see our website: www.keele.ac.uk/health/schoolofmedi-cine/newsevents/medicineca-reersday.

Open days

The university open days in 2014 are Sunday 22nd June, Sunday 17th August, Saturday 20th Sep-tember and Sunday 19th October. The university campus will be open to all visitors and the School of Medicine will be open for pro-spective medicine applicants and their families. For further details and to book a place please see: www.keele.ac.uk/visiting.

Visit days

Students who receive an offer to study at Keele University are invit-ed to attend one of our Visit Days in February or March. The aim of the Visit Day is to help applicants make a better informed choice of where to study by enabling them to find out more about the univer-sity and the medical curriculum, view our facilities and meet staff and students.

Widening access

The School of Medicine is actively involved in widening access to medicine. To this end UCAS contextual data is used to support eligible students. Students may also be supported through the Progression to Keele programme. See: www.keele.ac.uk/outreach/activities/post-16activities/pro-gressionto/ for furtherinformation.

13

ACTIVITIES FOR SCHOOLS, COLLEGES ANDCAREERS ADVISORS

Student interview movies can be seen at:www.keele.ac.uk/health/schoolofmedicine/movies

14

Let me set something straight right away, I always thought being a doctor was reserved for people who were ridiculously academi-cally gifted. Of course, we all know that doctors do have to be smart, but I never considered myself particularly academically gifted, something I attribute to not enjoying secondary school in the slightest. I demonstrated this in a rather mediocre performance at GCSEs. This said, I managed well enough to get into my local 6th form where I began to enjoy education. Building on this, I found myself studying a History & Politics degree at the University of Essex which I thoroughly enjoyed.

At university I became involved in voluntary activities in a crisis-lis-tening and drop in service called Nightline and the first aid charity St John Ambulance. These gave me confidence and the new expe-rience of a caring role. During my second year my tutors identified my dyslexia, which enabled me to develop strategies to help my study. What is great is that this is something Keele has continued to support me with.

Having always wanted to be a police officer, I joined Essex Police as a Special Constable in my final year of university, something I did full-time for a year or so during

2009 after graduation. Being in the police built my confidence up further and made me realise that I was a person who could deal with stressful situations calmly and logically. I also enjoyed the community and interaction with the public enormously. Despite loving the role I kept coming back to my medical work with St John Ambulance.

After meeting with and talking to doctors during one particularly long and stressful duty the idea to become a doctor seemed to crystallise in my mind. It’s the only time in my life that I can honestly say that has happened. Despite all I had learned in the police, char-ity work, and my work as public communications consultant when I looked into courses the problem I had was that very few allowed entrants without chemistry or biology A-levels.

Keele was actually recommended to me by a family friend. I did some research and my mind was made up. The foundation pro-gramme offered me the chance to study in spite of my A-level choices and Keele was the kind of intimate campus student com-munity learning environment that would suit me perfectly.

Having already studied for a degree, I can say with some con-fidence that the foundation year is hard work. I found it more chal-lenging than my previous degree, but if you put in the work you will be rewarded with access to one of the top medical schools in the United Kingdom.

As a mature graduate student, who is married, having to keep one eye on my financial woes whilst the other is on a text book, to say this path is the easy option is far from the truth. I’m yet to meet a mature medical student or a doctor who studied as a mature student anywhere that has any reservations whatsoever with their decision to join the profes-sion. With Keele’s curriculum and teaching style, I know that our year will be eventually graduating as some of the best physicians in the country.

Well, can you or I believe that I’ve passed the first year with no re-sits? The first year was everything I imagined it would be; hard work, challenging, involving and did I mention hard work? The year started at a fast pace and you’re expected to keep up - don’t make it difficult for yourself, approach the course with the correct at-titude and be positive.

The support from the staff is second-to-none and it is refresh-

ing for everyone to be so forward thinking. In the first year although the work was demanding, there is still plenty of time to do whatever it is you do in your free time. For me this involved work with the British Army Reserves, the gym and DIY on my old farmhouse. For those like me who may have a few more miles on the clock, it is great to work with bright young people and a lot of the younger students have been a great sup-port to me - cheers Oli.

15

The close-knit community and ex-cellent facilities make the medical school a first class place to work and I recommend it anyone young or old.

Two bits of advice, firstly for the younger crowd, be confident, you will soon be part of one of the most respected professions in the world. For the mature student, if I can pass anyone can.

16

Year one has given you the back-ground knowledge of the way the body works. It has introduced you to basic anatomy and the fundamental physiology. Now it’s time to really start learning medicine. In year 2 you take what you’ve learnt about how things should work and you start to

understand how things can go wrong. For me, this was

the year that I really felt

like I was studying medicine, not just science. Each topic encour-ages you to dig a bit deeper into the physiology books, but also to start to become experts of patho-logical conditions. For example, you may know what the liver does in general, but this year you learn how each of its functions can go wrong, how things correlate with symptoms and signs, and how to examine patients! You’re intro-duced to the pathology behind many common medical conditions that you will be seeing frequently throughout your career, whilst you’re encouraged to understand them in a public health context. For example, you realise the im-pact conditions such as diabetes, alcohol misuse, hypertension and

allergy have on the body, health care services and the community in general. This enables you to start to think about health as a

concept and the many roles of a doctor

beyond biology.

Saying that, your normal physiol-ogy and anatomy is not aban-doned, in fact it’s stepped up a gear. In the anatomy suite you fo-cus on the brain, bones and mus-cles, eyes and ears and endocrine organs, whilst filling in any gaps in last year’s knowledge. These new systems are very complicated but they are far from boring. By the end of the year you will have experienced a little bit of every subject, so it’s the time you start to realise what type of doctor you may want to be. For example, for the budding orthopaedics and rheumatologists the move-ment block is fantastic, whereas gastroenterology may be for you if you love cirrhosis and inflam-matory bowel disease! This is also the year where you really start to appreciate the role of the doctor, including how they work within a multidisciplinary team. When you reach year 3, you will be actu-ally working alongside nurses, physiotherapist, and occupational therapists etc. and managing real patients with real conditions. So, now is the time to understand how you as a doctor can contrib-ute to patient management.

Starting third year is a real adventure!Having completed your pre-clinical years at the Medical School in Keele, it is now time to put your skills and knowl-edge into practice. It is an exciting time, a reassuring reminder of why we chose study medicine, and one begins to feel what it may be like to be a doctor. Year three is about getting involved, having lots of contact time with patients; whilst still having teaching alongside this new clinical environment.

Year three is divided up into six rota-tions, an SSC component and a CSC component. The rotations are four weeks long and include: Surgery, Mental Health, Elderly, Paediatrics, Medicine 1 and Medicine 2. These will mostly be based at the University Hospital of North Staffordshire. The SSC is the Student Selected Component where you can do an audit or carry out some research in a field that interests you. The CCS is the Consolidation of Clinical Skills where we reinforce the skills we have learned this year, within local Gen-eral Practice surgeries.

Whilst on the rotations, you will spend four days a week at the hospital, and one day a week at the Medical School in Keele. This balance works really well, as one can feel part of a team on the wards, whilst still feeling supported from the teaching at the Medical School. You will still have the opportunity to visit the anatomy suite once a week. Dissection is a great way of learning

because it helps you to visualise what is in textbooks, and of course, practise your surgical skills. This is really helpful, as it enables you to practise procedures that you may have observed in theatre that week.

The hospital staff are really helpful and welcoming. They are keen to teach, will-ing to evaluate your techniques, and will always point you in the right direction if you lose your way! The hospital building itself is quite new, so it’s a really lovely environment to be working in. Medical students in other years and foundation year doctors are really keen to give you tips, offer extra teaching sessions, and support you with anything you may need some help with.

Let me encourage you to apply to Keele to study medicine. The Medical School here at Keele has a varied curriculum and has fantastic resources, which makes it really exciting to study here. The course is so expertly and thoughtfully designed, and I really can’t emphasise enough how pleased I am that I chose to come to Keele.

17

18

Deciding what medical school to apply to was arguably the hardest task I’ve done to date. However, choosing medicine at Keele was by far the best decision I have ever made. The last few years studying medicine at Keele have been an incredible experience and have exceeded all the expecta-tions I previously held.

Fourth year at Keele is arguably the most challenging year medi-cal students face, as it contains written medical finals. However, the clinical experiences and excel-lent teaching received in previ-ous years put all students in a comfortable position to tackle the difficulties with ease. Everyday is spent in a clinical environment and new exciting specialities are introduced such as Obstetrics and Gynaecology. The most enjoyable aspect of fourth year is the ability to spend a significant amount of time at-tached to different clinical teams. On these placements we are able to fully integrate in the team and have an important input into pa-tient care, which is tremendously rewarding.

Being based at the University Hospital of North Staffordshire, we have the privilege to work in a brand new hospital in a friendly environment where both staff and patients ensure you maxim-ise every learning opportunity presented. The course consists of a perfect blend of Case Illustrated Learning coupled with appropri-ate ward experience and clinics, which direct and reinforce your learning.

Despite being an academically intense course, the school encour-ages a work-life balance. As I love football, I have the time to wind down during the week by playing 6-a-side football as well as hitting the gym several times a week. There are always things going on, in and around the university, and there’s always time for a decent night out!

I love being a medical student at Keele and the thought of be-coming a doctor in a year’s time excites me greatly. I believe that I am in the right place to achieve my goal of becoming a competent doctor, and hopefully you will too. Good luck.

I was excited to start my final year at Keele. I had passed my written

exams, I was moving to Shrewsbury and all talk was of planning electives!

The 5th year at Keele is split evenly between primary and secondary care

placements. I was expected from the beginning of my placement to conduct my own consultations with management plans and follow up. I found this challenging at first as many complaints found in primary care differ from what I was more used to in the hospital. I enjoyed the challenge and my knowledge base increased significantly. I gained more from the practice the harder I worked. I was asked to assist with flu clin-ics, new born vaccinations and conducting home visits.

My favourite placement during my final year was the critical care block. We com-pleted intermediate life support and simu-lation training during a preparation week then spent the following weeks within the critical care settings. As students we were encouraged to get stuck in and help within

the emergency department and on the intensive care unit.

The best part of final year has to be the medical elective. I went to

Australia and Hong Kong for two, four week divided placements.

In Australia I worked within a public hospital, and in Hong

Kong at an international private hospital. I chose

to split my elective to allow me to experience two different health care systems and to extend my travelling opportunity. Stu-dents’ travelled worldwide to experience health care deliv-ery in different settings. The vast differences in health care provision seen by myself, and my peers, provided a unique learning experience which has heavily influenced many with their future career choices.

It was with mixed emotions we celebrated our graduation. Leav-ing university was sad as friend-ship groups were splitting up to work throughout the United Kingdom, but graduating signified the start of our careers which we were all lookingforward to.

19

20

Currently I am working as an Academic FY2 doctor. This means that I complete three four-month rotations in different specialties with some allocated academic time to undertake teaching and research. Working as a doctor is a challenging and varied career and every day is different. You get the opportunity to meet some incredible people, both staff and patients, which is a great privi-lege. I am also involved with un-dergraduate teaching at Keele and working with students provides another very enjoyable element to an already diverse job.

My current rotation is in the Acci-dent and Emergency department at UHNS, which is a very busy and very fulfilling job. FY2’s see patients independently with the knowledge that senior support is available when needed. There is a huge variety of available FY2 posts at the hospitals linked to Keele, creating plenty of learning opportunities within medicine, surgery and specialty posts.

I have very fond memories of my time at Keele as an undergradu-ate medical student. The five years that I spent there went very

quickly and I wouldhappily recommend it toanyone. You undertakeearly clinical placements in the first and second year, providing you with the opportunity to start to develop basic clinical skills early on. The staff on all sites are very friendly and encouraging and create a supportive learning envi-ronment. You spend a lot of time in your clinical years being in-volved in direct patient care whilst under supervision. This means that you are able to acquire all the necessary skills to practise as a FY1 and FY2 doctor.

The Keele curriculum has been very thoughtfully planned. You are able to learn core clinical skills whilst also being able to under-take special study components in areas of personal interest. I would encourage anybody who wishes to apply for medicine to consider applying to Keele as it really is a fantastic place to study. Studying medicine requires a lot of hard work and determination, however the rewards involved are vast. There is no other career I could see myself pursuing and I am proud to say that I have a Keele medical degree.

Details of our staff are included on our virtual tour at:

www.keelemedicalschool.org.uk/keele_medical_school/overview.htm

Our staff

21

The Health Foundation Year for Medicine at Keele University was established to provide an alternative entry route into the medical degree programme for stu-dents who have the right level of qualifi-cations but are without the chemistry or biology A-levels that entry to the 5 year medicine course requires. The course is also open to students with other level 3 qualifications and to graduates with non-science degrees.

A good blend of students join the course each year, with varying backgrounds, nationalities, and reasons for wanting to study medicine. For example, some come with nursing back-grounds, some with non-science degrees, others with humanitiesA-levels. In this year, you will follow academic modules related to the principal medicine course which you will join once you have completed the year successfully.

The year also offers training in generic transferable skills includ-ing communication skills, coun-selling skills, IT and numeracy.

HEALTHFOUNDATION YEAR

22

Opportunities for Student Selected Components (SSCs) occur in each year of the undergraduate medical degree. Each SSC is intended to help you add to your core learning skills and broaden knowledge in an area that is of particular interest (which may or may not be part of the core cur-riculum), thereby exploring potential career options and personal interests. You will work closely with an SSC supervisor who can help you make the most of each opportunity.

In year 5 the SSC is anelective period.

“The medical elective is arguably the component of any medical degree that is most looked forward to. At Keele, it is undertaken in the final year, after sitting the final exams. Undertaking it at this point is beneficial in several ways. Firstly it is a fantastic reward for five years hard work, and allows you a

precious 8 weeks out to explore and experience a new country or culture. More importantly however, approaching the placement with a broad knowledge and experience base allows you to gain more from and contribute more to the healthcare provision in your chosen area. The best electives strike a balance between these elements of workand play.

I chose to go to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Barbados to the Obstetrics and Gynaecology department. This placement was perfect as I was able to assist in a Caesarean section in the morning, and find myself water-skiing or scuba diving by the afternoon. As a final year I felt more confident that I could contribute to the day to day activities in the hospital, which meant I learned and experienced a great deal. I also had the time of my life which made the long days revising worthwhile!”

Adam ThomasKeele graduate

Overview of SSC opportunities

Year SSC focus

1 A three week literature review. You’ll choose either a topic from a list or generate your own with guidance from your SSC supervisor.

2

A longitudinal placement working within a health or social care organisation in the local community. You will be able to choose from a list of organisations that pro-vide services across a range of different areas including: mental health, substance misuse, housing and homelessness, young people, disability, older people, pallia-tive care and racial equality.

3

These are generally taken as 2 four-week blocks, though occasionally as a single eight-week block, towards the end of the third year. You have a wide choice of op-tions which includes clinical attachments both in areas you will have experienced previously and in clinical specialties that are new to you. There is also a diverse range of non-clinical attachments including areas such as the Humanities, Medi-cal Ethics and Medical Education. There are various opportunities to undertake research-based attachments including in qualitative and quantitative research methodology or to undertake laboratory-based research projects. You will produce a report at the end of your attachment which could be a clinical case report, a clinical audit project or a research paper. Students have gone on to present their projects at local and national meetings or have them published.

4

A four week block of clinical career exploration. These are similar to the Year 3 clinical SSC attachments but the emphasis is about learning about the career aspects of a particular clinical specialty. You will spend time not only with your clinical supervisor but also with the junior and middle grade doctors to find out more about postgraduate training and life as a senior doctor. You will explore and reflect upon the particular specialty and also be helped to produce a CV which will hopefully guide you through preparations for Foundation and SpR training posts after you have qualified.

5

An eight week elective to shadow a specific medical topic of personal interest in a different health setting (possibly, but not necessarily, overseas). This is a period of maximum flexibility where you will be encouraged to study any topic of interest to you that has relevance to medicine.

STUDENT SELECTED COMPONENTS

23

A proportion of medical students in the UK add an additional year to the five-year undergraduate course in order to study a subject of their choice in greater depth. You can opt to take a year out of your medical studies after completion of Year 2 (Bachelor’s degrees only) or Year 4 (Bach-elor’s or Master’s degree) in order to study a subject area in greater depth, before returning to complete the medical course. In exceptional circumstances, we would consider intercalation after Year 3. You can choose to stay at Keele for your intercalation year or apply to another university. At graduation, you would be eligible for the award of two degrees – the MBChB and another for the additional year of study.

Why do an intercalated degree?

An intercalated degree provides you with the opportunity to gain a better understanding of either basic biomedical sciences, medical humanities, or research methodologies and to pursue an additional qualification in a sub-ject that interests you. This may help you make informed choices about specialisation later in your career, particularly if you want to pursue a medical ademic career. Other benefits could include the improvement of long-term career prospects, as you will have had the opportunity to gain key research skills, publish academic papers and make presentations at conferences. Therefore, Keele Medical School is keen to encour-

age its students to undertake intercalated degrees.

Intercalated taught Masters Courses include:

• MSc in European ScientificResearch Training withinternational placement• MMedSci (Anatomical Sciences) • MMedSci (Primary Care)• MMedSci (Leadership forHealthcare Professionals)• Masters in Medical Education• MSc in Molecular Parasitology & Vector Biology• MSc in Biomedical Engineering• MSc in Cell & Tissue Engineering• MSc in Blood Science• MA in Medical Ethics and Law• MA in Ethics of Cancer &Palliative Care

Intercalated research Masters Courses

MPhil Primary Care Sciences (we also offer a range of MPhils in General Practice, Nephrology, Obstetrics and Gynaecology and Rheumatology, Stroke, and labo-ratory based options in parasitol-ogy, neuroscience and stem cell technology - these vary from year to year).

Intercalated Bachelors Courses

• BSc in Medical Humanities• BSc in Natural Sciences (SUB-JECT TO VALIDATION, TO BE INTRODUCED FROM 2014) with the following named routes: (i) Neuroscience (ii) Psychology (iii) Biochemistry (iv) Biochemistry and Human

Biology (v) Studies in BiomedicalSciences.

The courses listed on this page is not an exhaustive list. For further details please see: www.keele.ac.uk/health/schoolofmedicine/intercalateddegrees

“My intercalated year was spent undertaking an MPhil in Primary Care Sciences. This involved re-search training and writing a thesis regarding cardiovascular screen-ing for patients with rheumatoid arthritis in primary care. The year enabled me to gain experience of research and learn a variety of new skills. A personal highlight was presenting my work at a National Conference. I found intercalating to be a worthwhile and enjoyable experience and I would definitely recommend it!”Helen Monk

OPPORTUNITIES FOR AN INTERCALATED DEGREE

24

You will have opportunities to learn whether research is some-thing you may want to do as a doctor. The School of Medicine also offers an innovative research pathway which is designed to set you firmly on the road to a career which combines clinical work with patients and the exciting and stimulating world of medical research. The research pathway includes a range of opportuni-ties for you to enrich your clinical experience and CV, at various stages of your medical training. It is designed to find students and young doctors who want to develop a track record in research and to encourage and develop the medical researchers of the future.

Pathway step 1 - StudentSelected Component

You can obtain early exposure to research methods during your Year 3 Student Selected Compo-nent (SSC). See page 23 for more information about SSCs. This type of SSC can be done as a stand-alone component or can form a useful lead in to an intercalated degree after Year 4.

Pathway step 2 - Intercalated degrees

Depending on the course selected, these degrees can be primarily taught or have a major clinical or experimental labora-tory research component; they will provide modules in a range of research-related and clinical topics, and can offer the exciting opportunity to develop, carry out and publish a piece of research with an academic research group at Keele. Even if you decide at the end of the year that research is not for you, the experience and qualification gained will make an important contribution to your CV. See page 24 for more details of the intercalated degrees on offer at Keele.

Pathway step 3 - Academic foundation programme

After successful completion of a medical degree graduates start Foundation training. Keele offers a small number of Aca-demic Foundation programmes that provide the opportunity for research experience integrated into the clinical jobs in Foundation Year 1 and 2. Although most of the Foundation experience is clini-cal, the Academic programmes offer a great stepping stone for doctors developing a research track to their career. There is the opportunity to develop research projects linked to clinical experi-ence in Foundation posts and to build on research training gained from earlier steps in the research pathway.

Pathway step 4 - Special training and research

The next stage after the Founda-tion years is a period of special-ist training to be a consultant or general practitioner. For doctors who didn’t take an intercalated Master’s during their under-graduate years, the Postgraduate section of the School of Medicine supports the option to complete a Master’s degree at this point. For doctors who have decided on a research track, Keele hosts a num-ber of attractive Clinical Training Fellowships. These support doc-tors in extending their specialist training period to develop ideas for a research degree such as a PhD or MD.

With a PhD or MD, you will then have moved from Keele’s research pathway and be well on your way to a rewarding career in medical research.

THE KEELE MEDICAL RESEARCH PATHWAY

25

INSPIRE

Keele School of Medicine holds an an INSPIRE award. The scheme constitutes part of the academy’s portfolio of activities “aimed at nurturing the next generation of medical researchers”. INSPIRE aims to engage medical students with basic/clinical research and encourage students to consider research careers. INSPIRE supports a diverse range of activities including the setting up of a student-led research network, research oppor-tunities such as studentships and conference bursaries, and an annual undergraduate medical research showcase.

Over 90% of healthcare is pro-vided in community settings so learning in primary care is an es-sential element of the course.

In Year 1, you will have placements in general practices and start to develop your clinical interviewing skills.

In Year 2, you will select a“third sector” placement from a wide range of communityorganisations.

In Year 3, you will spend four weeks consolidating your Clinical Skills on placement in general practice.

In Year 4, you will have a four week placement in general prac-tice as part of the innovative Higher Consultation Skills block, helping you to develop your skills in diagnosis and treating patients. You also have an option of a student selected component in general practice at the end of the year.

In Year 5, you will have a long placement in general practice in which you will integrate your knowledge, skills and attitudes in preparation for your first years’ work. You will also work in a small group with your colleagues to as-sist a community organisation to address a need identified by the community.

Your community placements and teaching practices will be provided in urban, semi-rural and rural areas of Staffordshire and Shropshire, providing you a wide experience of healthcare in dif-ferent settings. You will learn how health and illness affect the indi-vidual, family and community, and how illness presents, is diagnosed and managed.

You will develop your understand-ing of the patient’s journey from health to illness to recovery or continuing care in their home through primary care to hospital and back to the community.

Third Sector Placements

Keele University Medical School has close links with over 100 different third sector or commu-nity organisations. These include national organisations and ones specific to the local area. They range from services for children, carers, older adults, people with disabilities and mental health is-sues, services covering domestic violence, housing and homeless-ness, substance abuse and sup-port services for specific diseases or disabilities. Placements with these varied organisations will allow you to understand how the community supports people with

medicine2.keele.ac.uk/cbr/placements.html

PLACEMENTS IN THE COMMUNITY

26

health and social care needs.You will learn and experience how services are delivered, how ser-vices interact with each other and the NHS, as well gaining a greater understanding of your patients’ wider experience.

Clinical placements naturally form a very important part of the un-dergraduate medical curriculum. In Years 1 & 2, experiential learn-ing offers you a programme of activities and half day placements across both primary and second-ary care providers based in North Staffordshire, and support groups within the local community. These activities are integrated with other learning priorities helping develop your understanding of social, cul-tural and historical influences on health, improve your communica-tion skills and ease your transition into the clinical environment. In Year 3, you will spend time rotating across four week blocks across a variety of hospital spe-cialities and in General Practice with a view to consolidating your basic history taking skills and your patient examination technique. Although the vast majority of your time will be based in North Staffordshire, you will have the opportunity of experiencing more rural community medicine on a GP placement in Shropshire.

The aim of Year 4 is to prepare you for the clinical assistantships that form the basis of Year 5 and will place an emphasis on the

The Student Council was fully established in the 2011-2012 Aca-demic year. It consists of elected student representatives from each year and hospital site. The Council aims to be a powerful student group that gives a voice to all medical students at Keele and provides a link between students and staff. The Council will provide a forum for discussing issues and ideas about all aspects of the cur-riculum and student life.

The KMS (Keele Medical Society) was established in 2002 by the first group of undergraduate stu-dents to come to Keele University. In keeping with other medical school societies around the coun-try, the committee members of KMS organise many of the social events at Keele. These range from sporting activities through to the Christmas Ball.

Keele students are also involved in contributing to a range of lo-cal and national student groups and societies such as the Junior Association for the Study of Medical Education (JASME), the Inter-School Committee of the BMA, the United Kingdom Medical Students’ Association and Medsin. These societies are involved in a range of activities and events with

attendance at national committee meetings representing student opinion. In addition to this, Keele offers a range of local societies including the Surgical Society, the GP Society, Keele Medics Char-ity Society, Keele Community First Responders and the Medical Careers Committee.

Keele MedPath was set up in 2012 to promote medicine in the local young community, raise aspira-tions in under represented groups, and giving prospective students the tools and support they needed to applyto medicine.

CLINICAL PLACEMENTS STUDENT GROUPS

27

application of core knowledge (both clinical and non-clinical) in clinically-relevant contexts in both primary and secondary care environments across Staffordshire and Shropshire. Secondary care rotations will see you rotating through units, each 4-6 weeks in length, where the focus of your teaching will be patient-centred in wards, theatres and clinics, help-ing ensure that you experience a balance of acute and elective/speciality teaching. Based around enhancing your consultation skills, making good decisions, managing information and effective clinical management, four weeks Higher Consultation Skills (HCS) based in the community will provide you with numerous opportunities to consult with patients, through a mixture of parallel and co-consultation in liaison with your GP Tutor, and will support you to develop your clinical skills through serial formative assessment.Year 5 focuses on preparation for professional practice. You are provided with sequential oppor-tunities throughout the year to integrate the knowledge and skills accumulated in previous years of the course. Using primary and secondary care clinical assistant-ships in general practice, medi-

cine, surgery, acute and critical care you will develop your ability to safely and effectively provide good quality healthcare for pa-tients and the wider community. Supported via appropriate clinical supervision, Keele Year 5 medical students make the transition from undergraduate medical studies to thinking and acting as a clinical practitioner. View our clinical placements and community and general prac-tice placements map online at: medicine2.keele.ac.uk/cbr/place-ments_map.html.

For more information about the wide variety of hospital settings we use across Staffordshire and Shropshire, please see: www.keele.ac.uk/health/school-ofmedicine/usefullinks/hospital-strusts.

We recognise that some student doctors may have difficulties at some stage of their training. There may be a difficulty with work in the course, with adjusting to the expectations of how a doc-tor should behave or personal problems, such as health, money or relationships.

Keele University School of Medicine has its own student support service which is important in our friendly, supportive environment. This service has been highly commended by the GMC. The student support team will be pleased to help with a wide range of issues. Support is available on an individual basis at the University and all major hospital sites and is a confidential service.

Every student will have their own professional development tutor for the duration of the course. If you develop academic difficulties then an enhanced support service (EPASS) will be pro-vided by the School. Also, the School provides an in-depth Careers advice service to ensure you choose the right speciality after graduation.

There are also other sources of support, guidance and advice beyond the Medical School and these include: Counselling, Health Centre, Learning Sup-port and Academic Guidance, Disability Services, English Language Unit and the Students’ Union.

More than ever, today’s medical students need a clear understanding of the career options a medical degree offers and the path-ways of different medical careers. Keele has developed a career support programme that has been designed to specifically target the needs of students in each year ofmedical school.

We offer regular lectures to get you thinking about career areas. Online “tests” to see what areas might suit your preferences are avail-able and you can then discuss these on a one to one basis with staff. In addition, there are opportunities to “taste” specialities through-out the course and careers fairs are held when you can talk to experts and specialists. Guid-ance on your first job application isalso offered.

Further career-related information is available on the Keele Learning Environment (KLE) online learning system.

www.keele.ac.uk/health/schoolofmedicine/studentsupportservices

CAREER GUIDANCESTUDENT SUPPORT

28

Tuition fees for Home and EU students are currently £9,000 per annum in 2013/4. Please check the University’s web pages (www.keele.ac.uk/studentfunding/tui-tionfees) prior to application for further information.

Overseas student tuition fees

Tuition fees for students from out-side the European Economic Area and Switzerland are reviewed an-nually. Please see the University’s web pages (www.keele.ac.uk/international) for up-to-date information.

Bursaries and scholarships

The latest information about bursaries and scholarships avail-able from Keele University can be found on the website at: www.keele.ac.uk/studentfunding.

NHS bursaries

5 Year MBChB programme (A100)

At the time of writing, English domiciled medical students will be eligible for means-tested bur-saries and help with tuition fees from their fifth year of studyand beyond.

In addition, these students will be entitled to apply for reduced rate student loans from year five of their course. Scottish, Welsh and Northern Ireland domiciled stu-dents may have slightly different arrangements, and you are ad-vised to consult the NHS Student Awards Unit in your area. Please visit the NHS Student Bursaries website at: www.nhsbsa.nhs.uk/students/ for up-to-date informa-tion about the bursaries available when studying medicine.

Living costs

Accommodation costs for stu-dents on a 37 week let (which includes the Easter vacation) are in the region of £2,784.25 - £5,609.94, depending upon room type and whether catering is included (2013/14 figures quoted). All accommodation occupancy periods include the Christmas vacation period. In years 3–5 the teaching period is longer and stu-dents will require a longer letting period. Medicine is a course which requires a lot of dedication and study, often with early teaching sessions, and you’ll therefore be expected to live locally. You’ll also need to budget for food, books, and the travel costs associated with clinical placements through-out the five years of the course. White coats for lab work and a stethoscope are necessary.

For details of University accom-modation please see: www.keele.ac.uk/studyatkeele/accommoda-tion.

TUITION FEES AND BURSARIES 2015

29

30

At the end of the undergraduate course you will receive an MBChB degree, which is a primary medi-cal qualification (PMQ). Holding a PMQ entitles graduates to provisional registration with the General Medical Council. Provi-sionally registered doctors can only practise in approved Founda-tion Year 1 posts: the law does not allow provisionally registered doctors to undertake any other type of work. Please see the GMC website at: www.gmc-uk.org for more information.

All new medical graduates in the UK should undertake the Founda-tion Programme. These pro-grammes are run by Foundation Schools which cover geographic areas (such as Staffordshire). The curriculum for the Foundation Programme is determined nation-ally but delivery may differ a little between Foundation Schools. The usual model is to undertake six four-month attachments in dif-ferent specialties over two years to attain a wide range of compe-tencies. There is opportunity for you to choose the geographical location in which to undertake your Foundation Programme as well as some choice of specialties.

There is also the opportunity to complete an Academic Founda-tion Programme. This covers the core learning of the standard foundation programmes, but also gives the opportunity for train-ees to gain insight into medical research and/or education. This is particularly suitable for those interested in an academic medical career. Applications to Foundation Programmes are competitive so first choice locations and special-ties are preferentially given to the better candidates. So far, all suit-ably qualified UK graduates have found a place on the Foundation Year 1 programme, but this can-not be guaranteed, for instance if there were to be an excessive number of competitive applica-tions from non-UK graduates. For more information on the Founda-tion Programme please see: www.foundationprogramme.nhs.uk.

Applications to the main Founda-tion Programmes occur at the be-ginning of year 5. Help is provided in applying for these posts by the Careers Liaison Co-ordinator, who has strong links with the Postgraduate Foundation Schools. Locally, the West Midlands Dean-ery, part of Health Education West Midlands, is active in supporting trainees in the West Midlands to pursue their preferred career and the career pages of the website

contain details and podcasts of careers in various specialties. See: www.westmidlandsdeanery.nhs.uk.

Successful completion of the Foundation Year 1 programme is normally achieved within 12 months and is marked by the award of a Certificate of Experi-ence. Graduates are then eligible to apply for full registration with the General Medical Council. Unsupervised medical practice in the NHS or private practice in the UK requires full registration with a licence.

Vocational training and education continues throughout profes-sional life, and further postgradu-ate training is provided through recognised specialty training schemes leading to the award of a certificate of completion of train-ing (CCT). Attainment of a CCT allows the individual to apply for senior positions, such as consult-ant posts or general practice partnerships. These schemes vary in duration from three to seven years, commencing upon success-ful completion of the Foundation Programme. It is crucial that stu-dents think about which specialty route they would like to follow as early as they possibly can. Impor-tant career decisions have to be made within two years of gradu-

ation and successful application to specialty training posts is more likely if students and trainees have structured their learning and ex-periences towards their final goal. Career support programmes and personnel are available at Medical School to assist with this.

Medical students at UK medical schools who are from overseas and do not have right of resi-dence must check how the latest information on visa requirements affects their postgraduate training period. Please see the UK Border Agency website: www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk.

N.B. Information about medical careers after graduation is correct at the time of going to press. For up to date information please visit: www.westmidlandsdeanery.nhs.uk.

“After graduating from Keele University I decided to undertake my foundation year training at University Hospital of North Staf-fordshire (UHNS). I had trained at the hospital during two of my clinical years as a medical student and thoroughly enjoyed it. The facilities are second to none and it is a pleasant environment to work in. I have always wanted to work at a teaching hospital and wanted some exposure to trauma cases:

UHNS fulfilled this as not only is it a teaching hospital but is also a trauma centre. As a junior doctor one faces a number of challenges but from the nurses to the consult-ants, the staff are very supportive and are always happy to help. I have learnt some vital skills that are necessary to survive as a doctor. Oncology has enabled me appreciate disease from a patients point of view. My job as an FY1 doctor has required me to spend a substantial amount of time speak-ing to patients and their families and has improved my counselling skills and ability to communicate with patients sensitively and em-pathetically. I feel that the Keele curriculum has given me a firm clinical ground-ing and that the year 5 student assistantship has been excellent in preparing me for the day to day challenges one faces as an FY1. One of the requirements of a junior doctor includes teaching and there is ample opportunity for this at the hospital. I thoroughly enjoy teach-ing and find this very rewarding.I am confident that Keele Medi-cal School has provided all of its graduates with skills and experi-ence that will make use successful doctors.”

Asma AkhtarFY1 doctor

AFTERGRADUATION

31

Application procedure and entry criteria

All applications must be made through the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (UCAS, www.ucas.com) by the 15th October deadline, both for applicants wishing to enter the following September and for those wishing to defer to the year after.

Courses available

At Keele we have two routes available for entry to the Medi-cine degree. All applicants should check whether they meet the minimum academic criteria for the course that they wish to apply for. Please see our web pages for the most up-to-date list of acceptable qualifications:www.keele.ac.uk/health/schoolof-medicine.

HOW TO APPLY

32

5 year Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery (MBChB)Course code: A100

120 places available to home/EU applicants and up to 9 places available to non-EU applicants.

At A-level (A2) we require grades AAA/A*AB including biology or chemistry plus another science subject and a third rigorous subject, with no less than a grade B in any subject. A fourth AS-level grade B or above is also required. Chemistry as a minimum must be offered at AS Level grade B.

Typically for school leavers we require a minimum of 4 GCSEs at grade A/A* with English language and maths at grade B or better. The following science GCSE combinations are acceptable: science + additional science at grades BB (if further additional science is taken this must also be passed at a minimum of grade B) or physics + chemistry + biology at BBB. If applicants have been entered for multiple qualifica-tions arising from the same GCSE courses (for example science + additional science and also physics + chemistry + biology), or if they have taken the same qualification with multiple exam boards, we will only take the minimum required subjects or low-est grades into account.

Graduates with a 2i honours degree or better in a de-gree subject that includes substantial biology/chemistry content are considered. In addition, graduates should have GCSE English language and maths and the sci-ences at grade B or better.

Students who have passed all units of an accredited Ac-cess to Medicine diploma with distinction in all graded units are eligible to apply. We accept the Access diplo-mas from Stafford College/New College Telford, College of West Anglia, Sussex Downs College and Manchester College. These students are also required to demon-strate that they have substantial work/life experience and therefore would usually have been in voluntary/paid employment or full-time caring for a minimum period of two years.

All applicants must take the UK Clinical Aptitude Test (UKCAT) in the year of ap-plication and have gained experience in a role involving hands-on caring and/or direct interpersonal interaction.

Applicants must submit their UCAS application for course code A100 (MBChB) at K12 (Keele University) by the 15th October deadline.

6 year Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery (MBChB)Course code: A104

Up to 10 places available to applicants (home/EU or non-EU) without the science subjects needed for the 5 year degree.

Grades AAA/A*AB are required from three A-level subjects, with no grade below B. A fourth AS level grade B or above is also required. A-level combinations should not include chemistry beyond GCSE level; A-level biology is only acceptable when combined with non-science A-levels. We expect that the majority of applicants for this programme will not have studied the sciences at a higher level.

Typically for school leavers we require a minimum of 4 GCSEs at grade A/A* with English language and maths at Grade C or above. If applicants have been entered for multiple qualifications arising from the same GCSE courses (for example science + additional science and also physics + chemistry + biology), or if they have taken the same qualification with multiple exam boards, we will only take the minimum required subjects or lowest grades into account.

Students undertaking an access to HE diploma will be considered if all units are passed and distinctions are achieved in all graded units. Other level 3 qualifications (e.g. advanced diploma, BTEC national diploma) will also be considered.

Graduates with a 2i honours degree in a humanities/social sciences/nursing disci-pline will be considered if they do not hold the standard science A-levels required for the 5 year programme.

All applicants must take the UK Clinical Aptitude Test (UKCAT) in the year of application and have gained ex-perience in a role involving hands-on caring and/or direct interpersonal interaction.

Applicants must submit their UCAS ap-plication for course code A104 (Medicine with Health Foundation Year) at K12 (Keele University) by the 15th October deadline.

33

MBChB 2015 EntryRequirements

It is your responsibility to check that you meet our entry crite-ria for your chosen course, as published on our web pages, prior to submitting your UCAS applica-tion. Please see our web pages for the most up-to-date details: www.keele.ac.uk/health/schoolof-medicine/undergraduatemedical-course/entryrouteshowtoapply.

If you apply and are offered a place at the School of Medicine, you will also be required to apply, through the University, for an Enhanced Disclosure from the Dis-closure and Barring Service (DBS). All students entering the course must undergo occupational health screening and comply with vac-cination requirements. As part of our non-academic conditions all successful applicants will be required to complete satisfactory health and DBS checks.

Additional EntryRequirements

All applicants for courses A100 and A104 should note that as part of the entry requirements they must undertake the United Kingdom Clinical Aptitude Test (UKCAT). The results from this may contribute to our decision-making process. Applications will only be processed if the applicant has a current, valid UKCAT result or an official UKCAT exemption number. A bursary system is in operation for candidates requiring assistance: please see www.ukcat.ac.uk.

In addition, international appli-cants will be asked to undertake an English language qualification such as the International English Language Testing Service (IELTS, with a minimum average score of 7.0, with not less than 7.0 in any one component taken at the same sitting) or the Cambridge Cer-tificate of Proficiency in English (CPE). Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) and Test of English for International Commu-nication (TOEIC) qualifications are not usually acceptable.

Work Experience

It is essential that all applicants gain experience in a caring role and/or a role involving significant interpersonal interaction and include some reflection on this in their UCAS application. More ad-vice and guidance is available on the School of Medicine website: www.keele.ac.uk/health/schoolof-medicine/undergraduatemedical-course/entryrouteshowtoapply.

Resit Applicants

Students who have taken more than 2 years to complete three A Levels will only be considered when they have achieved the re-quired grades of A*AB/AAA with a fourth AS at grade B.

Widening access

The Medical School is actively involved in widening access to medicine. To this end, UCAS contextual data is used to support eligible students. Students may also be supported through the Progression to Keele programme. See: www.keele.ac.uk/outreach/activities/post-16activities/pro-gressionto for further information.

Admissions Statistics

For 2014 entry we received over 1,950 applications for 129 places on the A100 course and approxi-mately 150 applications for 10 places on A104.

34

35

Keele University School of Medicine, David Weatherall building, Keele University, Staffordshire, ST5 5BG. Tel: 01782 733642 or 734651Website: www.keele.ac.uk/health/schoolofmedicine. Email: medicine@keele.ac.uk

Open daysSunday 22nd June, Sunday 17th August, Saturday 20th

September and Sunday 19th October 2014The university campus will be open to all visitors and the MedicalSchool will be open for prospective medicine applicants andtheir families

Medicine careers dayWednesday 12th March 2014The Medicine Careers Day is for students in years 10-12

Why not visit us?