Overview

Throughout your studies at University of Dundee’s Medical School, you’ll be based at Ninewells Hospital, Dundee, which will give you access to clinical areas from day one and develop your understanding of how modern healthcare operates.

With around 160 students in each academic year, the size and structure of Dundee’s medical school helps you get to know your peers and the academics and clinicians teaching you. You’ll feel part of our community from the start – especially as you’ll be interacting with real patients from early in the course.

The curriculum starts with an eight-week foundation block which explores the fundamental science that underpins the field of medicine – this will help you start to think like a doctor and begin clinical problem-solving.

Dundee’s spiral curriculum helps you build on knowledge in relevant areas year-on-year – you won’t be expected to learn everything in one block and then remember it forever. Dundee Medicine revisit topics to help your knowledge become second nature.

For the first three years, you’ll learn about body systems, examining normal and abnormal function before exploring clinical cases. You’ll also learn anatomy by dissection. Dundee Medicine use Thiel-embalmed cadavers which retain life-like tissue quality. This experience is as close to examining the anatomy of a living person as possible, and will give you an experience and understanding that no other medical school in the UK can offer.

After your pre-clinical years, you’ll have the option to intercalate and gain a BMSc in a range of subjects, but whether you decide to do this or not, in Levels 4 and 5, you move into clinical training. This is a series of placements that will give you a well-rounded experience in a number of clinical areas, and enable you to put your training into practice at the point of care for real patients in real healthcare settings.

Teaching

Dundee Medicine use a range of teaching methods as they know that not everyone learns in the same way, and they know from experience that certain subjects are better taught in a particular way. Dundee help you to get the most out of your studies through our varied, engaging, and challenging curriculum.

Lectures

You’ll learn via:

• traditional lectures
• problem-based lectures – where you’ll explore a specific problem
• case-based lectures – where you’ll look into cases related to the topic you’re learning about
• team-based lectures – where you’ll work in teams throughout the class

Dissection

You’ll be taught about human anatomy through hands-on full-body dissection sessions using Thiel-embalmed cadavers. These cadavers retain flexible, realistic tissue and full joint mobility – qualities which are lost in traditionally-embalmed cadavers.

This will help you understand human anatomy through true-to-life placement of body systems and tissue. You’ll also develop practical skills such as scalpel handling and suturing (using medical implements to stitch tissue together).

Simulation-based learning

You’ll use their Clinical Skills Centre with its purpose-built replica ward to learn your clinical skills. Here, you’ll interact with real and simulated patients to practice what you’d do in real-life scenarios.

As well as building your practical skills, this immersive experience will help build your knowledge, confidence, people skills, and resilience – all important characteristics for medical professionals.

Dundee Medicine also have a Surgical Skills Centre where you’ll learn the hands-on skills required for surgery and gain an understanding of surgical procedures.

Ward-based placements

As they’re based on-site at Ninewells, an NHS teaching hospital, there are many opportunities to gain experience on a real working ward. You’ll spend time shadowing doctors, assessing patients, and contributing to the overall ward team.

Many of Dundee’s lecturers are clinicians at Ninewells, so if you have a specific interest in an area of medicine, it’s often possible to arrange your own ward experiences by speaking to a relevant clinician.

Clinical placements

In your clinical years, you’ll have longer-term placements where you’ll be embedded in a clinical setting for a number of weeks. These placements are designed to give you broader experience in a range of clinical areas and may take place away from Dundee. There are also many placements based in General Practice for short periods in early years and longer blocks later.

Dundee Longitudinal Integrated Clerkship (DLIC)

This is an optional opportunity during Level 4 to take time out from the regular curriculum and spend a year working in an NHS medical practice in one of Dundee’s partner healthboards. You’ll learn from real-life experiences and will follow specific patients to hospital and experience their entire patient journey. You’ll need to reflect on your personal experience as you’ll have to ensure you gain the right exposure to all parts of medicine during this year.

Digital resources

Dundee Medicine have a huge library of digital resources including animations, graphics, and notes to help supplement your learning. They employ an in-house medical artist to ensure these are of the highest quality and many students also contribute to these resources.

Assessment

You’ll be assessed in a range of ways during this course. Some assessments will take place throughout the course, your portfolio for example, and others will be exams that you’ll do at the end of a year.

The assessments will take the form of:

• essays
• case discussions
• self-directed research
• online exams – usually multiple choice
• anatomy spot tests

Objective Structured Clinical Exams (OSCEs)

These exams will test your clinical capabilities through a series of scenarios where you’ll be faced with a problem in our simulated ward and assessed on how you deal with this.

You will either be given instructions to perform a clinical task or respond to an actor pretending to have symptoms. These assessments are a great way to show your knowledge and practical skills as well as demonstrate you can stay calm and make good decisions under pressure.

Professional portfolio

This is a self-led project that you will add to each year. This gives you the opportunity to reflect on your progress and ensure the development of core skills alongside aspects of professional practice.

Medical Licensing Assessment (MLA)

From 2023 onwards: all doctors practising in the UK will need to pass the MLA which is formed of two parts: an applied knowledge test and a professional skills assessment. You’ll undertake this assessment so that by the time you graduate, you are licensed to practice as a doctor.

Entry requirements

A-Levels to be in the same sitting i.e. to be achieved in the same year, two years after GCSE

A-Level – Chemistry and another science (from biology, physics or mathematics)

The third subject can be your own choice; we have no preference

GCSE – We also require Biology, English, and Mathematics at least to Grade B/6, if not studied at A-Level (A2)

Achievement at GCSE and AS Level will also be taken into account.

A-Level General Studies is not accepted

All applicants must sit the UCAT UK test in their year of application unless certified exempt because there is no testing centre in your country. There is no minimum cut-off score. More information about the UCAT test and how and when to register for it can be found on the UCAT website.

Interview

If you are invited to interview you must attend an online interview on one of the pre-scheduled dates

Interview format

Dundee’s online interviews take the form of a panel interview involving staff and students from the School of Medicine.

• The interview will comprise of a series of virtual stations in which you will be asked to consider questions, situations, and dilemmas. Even though these are often framed in a clinical or medical context, no prior medical knowledge is required to address them. They want to find out about your ability to think critically and flexibly, on your feet. They are looking to assess your work experience, your communication skills, and your ability to work in a team. They are looking for caring and hardworking individuals.
• There will be 5 stations lasting 6 minutes each. There will be a 1 minute break in between stations where you will have time to read the briefing material for the next task.
• The interview is designed to assess your problem-solving skills, your personal values, and your ability to communicate. These are all hugely important in shaping the kind of doctor you will be and here in Dundee they place a lot of weight on them.

Professional Recognition in Canada

In Canada, provincial and territorial medical regulatory authorities have the responsibility to confer licences to physicians. The Medical Council of Canada plays an important role in the assessment of potential physicians in Canada. This assessment includes national qualifying examinations and satisfactory completion of acceptable postgraduate training. It is the responsibility of the medical school graduate to contact the provincial body for regulations and requirements.

KOM Consultants understands the process and requirements needed to enter the medical profession in Canada. Contact KOM Consultants for more information

All students applying directly through KOM Consultants will be supported with the latest information on the accreditation process.