Manchester - applying for medicine as a second degree

Course structure

Manchester University offers a 3-year medicine course for dental graduates, entering into third year of the usually 5-year undergraduate course. Third year is the first clinical year at Manchester, and the vast majority of the time is spent on placement in hospitals with weekly skills, histories and examinations signed off on your iPad (provided by the university). You are allocated to base hospitals and will spend most of the time at your base hospital and at the nearby satellite hospitals. The base hospitals are Salford Royal, Wythenshawe, Manchester Royal Infirmary and Royal Preston. The hospitals can be quite a way away from each other, and although public transport and accommodation is available for most placements, I would recommend a car. All face-to-face teaching for examinations and clinical skills is done in the hospital, with theoretical teaching done in PBL (problem based learning) style “Themed Case Discussions” at the end of each week. Third year focuses on more general medical and surgical placements with 5x 5-week placements, with specialties such as Obstetrics and Gynaecology covered in 8x 4-week blocks during 4th year. In 3rd year, there is an 8-week block used for an academic project in the summer months before exams, and a 4-week elective in 4th year. Assessments are spread out between January and May with two OSCE style examinations and two “Progress tests”. The progress test is a multiple choice exam covering the full breadth of medicine and sat every year by all student year groups.

Applications

Similar to most medical courses you can apply to, you will need to apply on UCAS (there are exceptions i.e. QMUL). On UCAS, pick the usual Manchester medicine code (previously A106) and pick year 3 as the entry point. A dental degree, MFDS or equivalent, references and a personal statement are expected. UCAS needs to be completed by the early entry point (usually October).

The university uses UKCAT as its psychometric analysis and uses the score to cut out a percentage of the applicants before interview – it is rumoured to be the top 3rd of applicants, but they do consider students below this. UKCAT should be sat in the late summer before applying, it is only valid for one year and can only be sat once.

The interview process at Manchester is MMI, with multiple stations on a wide range of topics. They are particularly interested in your communication skills and it is one of the friendlier interviews around.

Bursary/finance

There are multiple ways to finance your degree and it will depend on each person’s specific situation. However, here are some of the following aids that you can utilise to help fund your degree:

· Student finance is available if a student meets the requirements

· A non-taxable bursary of £2000 per year is available from Manchester university for independent students. This is assessed for by the university automatically (but you will need to apply for student finance, even if it is for a £0 loan).

· Students can apply for the NHS bursary in final year, which will pay for the entire course fees.

· There is a BAOMS bursary that can be applied for with a prize of up to £2000, paid on completion of the project.

Work

There are multiple options for work in and around Manchester. Before committing to anywhere to live or work, find out which base hospital you are at – Preston is pretty far away from Wythenshawe and you do not get a say in where you are placed (unless you already had a house/family in Manchester before your application).

There are many units in the Manchester area. The largest one is MRI, which has a 1st on call rota for weekend days and nights made up of mostly 2nd degree students. Other units that are also supportive of second degree students are Preston, Blackburn, Wythenshawe and North Manchester General Hospital. Please look at the BAOMS JTG website for these contacts, they have all been placed on there. You shouldn’t be short of work in Manchester. Obviously, you can still work in general practice and there is an emergency dental contract that can be worked on in the Manchester area. With a car, there are many other OMFS units commutable from Manchester as well.

Mairead Kelly & James Wege