Applying to Medicine and alternatives!
This is a copy of an article I wrote for Career Matters, the CDI quarterly magazine aimed at careers professionals. I hope its useful for you, whether you are interested in this area as a career yourself, a careers adviser or a teacher.
Medicine has always been popular at university, since the University of Edinburgh opened the first British medical school in 1726. There are many reasons why - the ‘vocation’ of the role, the status and well-paid nature of the job, combined with the possibilities to travel and specialise in such a diverse range of areas. Ask any careers adviser or 6th form tutor about their conversations with students applying to medicine and all the above reasons will be mentioned, along with the often, “I don’t know why, it just appeals”. UCAS produce a significant amount of statistics around subject applications and acceptances. Just to demonstrate how competitive medicine is, here are some stats (this will include students applying for up to 4 medical courses)
• 2007 72,275 applications, 7845 acceptances (9.2% conversion rate)
• 2012 81,260 applications 7805 acceptances (10.4%)
• 2016 74,860 applications 7830 acceptences (9.6%)
The vast majority of these acceptances each year will be made via a student’s firm choice, but there are a small but surprising number that come through other means:
2007 2012 2016
Firm choice 7305 7150 6780
Insurance choice 80 65 80
Ucas Extra 30 50 90
Adjustment 0 10 15
Clearing 285 365 570
It is important to remember that not only are A level results crucial, but very good GCSEs will be looked for. Contextualised data is sometimes used for entry, for instance onto a foundation year.
There are some ‘alternative’ routes to undergraduate medical training:
The graduate route
Firstly there is the option of applying for a graduate medical course, after a first degree. There are a number of universities with a graduate entry route; including Queen Mary’s, Birmingham, Bristol, Cambridge, Kings, Liverpool, Newcastle, Oxford, St Georges, Southampton, Swansea and Warwick. Some of these universities will accept any degree subject, i.e. Cambridge, Newcastle, Nottingham, Southampton, St Georges, Swansea and Warwick, whilst the others will be looking for a science related degree.
One of the main issues students will need to investigate further is the student finance for training this way. At present, there is some limited support available from the Student Loan Company and the Department of Health; www.gov.uk/nhs-bursaries and www.gov.uk/studentfinance.
Course transfer
As well as applying for graduate entry, there are some university medical schools who will consider internal applications from undergraduates. These are as follows: (note that usual GAMSAT, UCAT or BMAT requirements apply)
• Queen Mary offers 15 of its best second year biomedical students an interview.
• Newcastle has 8 possible places. Students need to have an average unit grade of 75% minimum. Last year 68 students applied, 15 were offered interviews, and 6 were offered a place.
• Sussex and Brighton offer their first and third year biomedical students a guaranteed interview, as long as they meet the requirements.
• University of Leicester students can apply from biological sciences courses, although as with everywhere else, it is very competitive. The application might need to go through UCAS.
• Plymouth University has 5 places at the end of the first year for both medicine and dentistry; biomedical students need to achieve a 1st. There is also a guaranteed interview after the third year of biomed if a 1st has been achieved.
Other universities are not keen to accept internal applications, either wanting students to apply via UCAS, or to usually complete their first degree before postgraduate application. Foundation year/Year 0 There are a few university courses that will offer a year 0 or foundation year, for either students who do not have the right A level grades/subjects or those who meet certain widening participation criteria.
New medical schools
There are some new medical schools opening. Anglia Ruskin University has opened Essex’s first undergraduate medical school in September 2018 with a target of 100 students. Aston University has gone through the same approval process to open a medical course this year. Their offers are likely to be for a small number of local students who have completed a widening participation programme alongside their A levels, alongside a bigger international cohort. There are now 40 medical schools to choose between.
Gap year?
Students can also consider the option of taking a gap year. This will often give students a good chance to address any shortcomings in their application, for instance to resit an A level or to gain valuable work experience. But beware – not all medical schools will accept resit A level grades, as they prefer to see entry requirements met at one sitting, so students need to check this with their choices. This will also give them a chance to consider what the alternatives are to doing a medicine degree.
Alternatives to medicine
These are plentiful, what follows are some ‘themed’ avenues to explore, ‘I’m fascinated by the science of the human body’ or ‘I’m interested in using science to cure or prevent disease’
I’m fascinated by the science of the human body
Genetics, pharmacology, biomedical sciences and sport science are just some of the academic areas that could be worth looking at, which can lead to related careers, other suggestions being physiotherapy, radiotherapy, nutrition, pharmacology and physiology.
There are several career ideas which are a little less known. Healthcare scientists, clinical biochemists, biomedical scientists and clinical scientists offer a range of medical specialisms, including analytical toxicology, immunology and virology.
One step away from ‘hands-on’ science is the role of informatics, which is of growing importance to helping the NHS manage and improve the huge data sets it generates. These informatic roles include:
Genetics, which is ‘a role that connects computing, biology and medicine; those working in this area generally come from a variety of backgrounds including biology, computer science, statistics and informatics.’
Health or bio informatics, which looks at health data e.g. in diagnostic testing and management, to provide research and development in how healthcare is provided. Physical sciences informatics to develop new software and algorithms to ‘process clinical and genetic data’ (definitions from the NHS careers website).
Training programmes
The NHS has a Scientist Training Programme (STP), which takes on graduates each year to fill various clinical scientist jobs. This is a three-year programme, which provides both a part- time MSc and relevant work experience in the chosen area of work. It is competitive, but for those students who have just missed out on medicine, it could be a very good way to progress in a medically-related career. More information about the various specialist areas, STP and entry can be found here.
I want to work with people and their well-being in a helping way
The obvious ones which probably don’t need much explanation include dentistry, pharmacy, nursing, midwifery, optometry, occupational therapy, nutrition, medical social work. Then there other options too, including:
genomic counsellor
clinical psychologist
high intensity therapist
radiographer.
It is worth also re-evaluating with the student whether actually something completely different might be worth considering. So for instance, scientific writing, journalism, PR or marketing would all use the highly valued communication skills that potential doctors need to demonstrate. All these areas will need scientifically minded people who can communicate complex ideas for a different audience – for instance a pharmaceutical company will use marketing/PR to promote their products to doctors, NHS managers and the general public. Understanding the science ‘behind the product or story’ will be essential for these communications roles.
So, in conclusion, there are many different options available to those students not making it onto a medical degree, as one would expect. The challenge is to broaden out students horizons to be aware of what is actually available.
These websites might be useful….
UCAS undergraduate analysis reports
Mark Yates
Member of the Careers Writers Association
