Explore our Medicine MB ChB - Graduate Entry Undergraduate course.

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A101 (UCAS code)

MB ChB

4 years full-time

23 September 2024

Warwick Medical School

University of Warwick

Our four- year MB ChB (Bachelor of Medicine and Surgery) is an undergraduate programme designed for graduates. It is a challenging but extremely rewarding programme designed to help you become a highly competent, compassionate and strongly motivated doctor, committed to the highest standards of clinical practice, professionalism and patient care. 

Our accelerated graduate-entry MB ChB is a challenging but extremely rewarding programme. It’s designed to help you become a highly competent, compassionate and motivated doctor. We won’t pretend it isn’t tough, after all we’re committed to developing doctors with the highest standards of professionalism and patient care, yet this will only add to the rewarding feeling you will experience when you meet your first patient.

Our innovative and distinctive programme is the largest graduate-entry course in the UK, with an intake of 193 graduates each year. The course is taught by staff and specialists at the forefront of their subjects at the University of Warwick and at our regional hospitals (University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire, Warwick Hospital, George Eliot Hospital (Nuneaton), and Alexandra Hospital, (Redditch). 

Not only is our course the largest graduate-entry programme in the UK, we also hold the most comprehensive collection of plastinated human specimens in the UK. These specimens, from von Hagens Plastination (Germany), enable us to provide a unique, modern and engaging training in clinical anatomy that is directly relevant to clinical practice. These prosections provide invaluable hands-on experience for our students during their anatomy tuition. We also look forward to welcoming you to our new Clinical Education Hub, our bespoke anatomy and skills centre, due to open in September 2023. 

By the time you graduate, you will have developed the knowledge and key personal skills and attitudes necessary to pursue a successful professional career as a doctor.

Find out more information and details on how to apply on the Warwick Medical School websiteLink opens in a new window.

Case-Based Learning (CBL) is at the core of the MB ChB curriculum and is integrated across all four years of the programme. CBL is a leaner-centred method of teaching and learning that we regard as ‘directed discovery’. It identifies what is essential to know about a patient case while encouraging students, individually and in small groups, to take an active role in identifying what they need to learn and how they can learn it.

Year One will be delivered through largely university-based teaching, including integrated clinical exposure in various settings. You will be allocated to small learning groups made up of around ten students of different backgrounds and experiences. This method of working enables everyone to bring their own skills and knowledge to the group so you learn from one another, which we strongly believe enhances your learning experience. You will benefit from cutting-edge anatomy teaching using plastinated specimens and 3D imaging, and will build your clinical skills through supervised day-to-day work with patients both in the hospital setting and in the Community.

Year Two will begin with a similar learning environment to Year One. You will gradually increase the amount of time you spend learning in health care settings, so that by the middle of this year you will find yourself immersed in community and hospital-based clinical teaching.

In Year Three you will learn in the context of a series of specialist blocks, further enhancing knowledge around core subject areas and developing professional skills. The majority of your learning will be based in GP practices in the wider community and in hospitals through our partner trusts.

The majority of your learning in Year Four will continue to be based in the wider community and hospitals through our partner trusts whilst preparing you to start practice as a Foundation Year I (FY1) doctor. In addition, a six-week elective in a setting of your choice enables you to observe how medicine is practised in another country or in a different social, cultural and physical environment. Our graduates emerge committed to the highest standards of clinical practice, professionalism and patient care.

Small group work tends to be in groups of between 8 – 15 students depending on the nature of the session.

Contact hours for this course vary significantly between year groups and clinical placements.

Students are assessed both formatively and summatively across all four years of the course. Formative assessments help to inform learning and are normally placed at the end of each teaching block. Summative assessments inform progression and take place at the end of Year One, end of Year Two, and in Year Four. The summative examinations consist of both a written and clinical element.

In addition, students must evidence engagement with the programme which includes demonstration of both academic and professional development, as well as a minimum attendance requirement.

In your final year you will be assessed by the national MLA (Medical Licensing Assessment) and be required to undertake the national Prescribing Safety Assessment.

Graduating students will receive a Bachelors of Medicine and Surgery. The final degree is unclassified. Awards of ‘with honours’ are based on a criteria determined by the Board of Examiners.

Additional course costs

There may be additional costs associated with studying this programme, such as personal clinical equipment – stethoscope, pen torch and laboratory coat, materials for research projects, printing, and travel costs between placements.

Students in their final year will undertake an elective of their choosing, which could be either home or abroad.

Students offered a place on the MB ChB programme will be required to submit a Disclosures and Barring Services (DBS) Enhanced check upon admission. MB ChB students are required to be re-checked every two years either by the DBS Update Service or full DBS enhanced check.

Your timetable

Your personalised timetable will be complete when you are registered for all modules, listing your allocated lectures, seminars, and other small group classes. Your compulsory modules will be registered for you when you join us.

To apply, you should have, or be predicted to gain, a minimum of an upper second class honours (2:1) degree (or overseas equivalent) in any subject.

Candidates with a lower second class degree should hold either a Master's or a Doctoral qualification to be considered for entry to the MB ChB. More information about our academic qualification requirements can be found on the Warwick Medical School website.Link opens in a new window

Work experience

All applicants must have completed two weeks' (70 hours') full-time work experience across a minimum of two placements in the last three years. Find out more about this requirement on the Warwick Medical School websiteLink opens in a new window.

United Kingdom Clinical Aptitude Test (UCAT)

All applicants must take the University Clinical Aptitude Test (UCAT) or, if appropriate, the UCATSEN. The total UCAT score required to secure a place at our Selection Centre varies year on year and is dependent upon the UCAT performance of applicants to Warwick Medical School. More information about the UCAT can be found on the Warwick Medical School website.Link opens in a new window

Medical Licensing Assessment (MLA)

The General Medical Council (GMC) has decided to introduce a Medical Licensing Assessment (MLA) from 2024 to demonstrate that those who obtain registration with a licence to practise medicine in the UK meet a common threshold for safe practice. Applicants should be aware that to obtain registration with a licence to practise, medical students will need to pass both parts of the MLA, and demonstrate their fitness to practise. The MLA will be in two parts: there will be a knowledge test, which will be set nationally but delivered at the medical school and a clinical assessment, delivered by medical schools, that will evaluate students’ clinical and professional skills. Please refer to our General Medical Council (GMC) and Medical Licensing Assessment (MLA) Information for ApplicantsLink opens in a new window page for latest guidance.

UCAS References

You will need to provide us with one reference from a person (not a relative) who holds/has held a position of responsibility and who can comment on your suitability for studying medicine’

• Band B
• Overall IELTS (Academic) score of 7.0 and component scores of two at 6.0/6.5 and the rest at 7.0 or above.

Although a Bachelor’s Degree, this is a Graduate Entry course and is administered by the Postgraduate Admissions Service. For further information regarding entry requirements, work experience and course specifics visit the Warwick Medical School website. For all other enquiries, please email our Postgraduate team mbchb dot admissions at warwick dot ac dot uk.

Year One

• Health, Metabolism and Homeostasis
• Blood, Lungs and Heart
• Brain and Behaviour
• Locomotion
• Reproduction and Child Health

Year Two

• Advanced Cases 1
• Student Selected Component (SSC)
• Core Clinical Education

In Year Two, you will undertake a Student Selected Component (SSC), which you will choose from a range of options.

Year Three

• Student Selected Component (SSC)

• Advanced Cases 2

• Specialist Clinical Placements

In Year Three, you will have the opportunity to select an SSC in an area for in-depth enquiry. Depending on your interest, you could link your area of interest with the SSC option you chose in Year Two. 

Year Four

• Specialist Clinical Placements
• Advanced Clinical Cases
• Elective Assistantship

Read more about the core modules offered on the Warwick Medical School website.Link opens in a new window

• Advanced Emergency Practice 
• Special Incident Management 
• Essentials of Clinical Education 
• Introduction to Leadership and Management in Health Care Contexts 
• Work-based Learning

Read more about the core and optional modules on the Medical School’s website.

We have revised the information on this page since publication. See the edits we have made and content history.

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