Medicine entry requirements

• Qualities and experience

  Personal statement
  Your personal statement should explain your reasons for wanting to study Medicine and why you think you would make a good doctor. You'll need to be able to demonstrate that you understand what a medical career involves and are aware of current developments.

  The School will expect you to have an insight into medicine and healthcare gained from general reading or from attending medical careers conferences, talking to doctors or medical students.

  Experience
  Applicants should have gained work or shadowing experience in a caring or health environment, including hospitals, GP surgeries, nursing homes or local hospices, or by working with people who have ill health or a disability.

  Qualities
  Successful applicants will be able to show evidence of the following:

  • personal qualities such as empathy, good communication and listening skills, leadership skills and the ability to work in a team
  • a well-informed understanding of what a career in medicine involves
  • commitment to medicine by organising work experience or shadowing
  • experience of working with ill or disabled people, preferably in health care settings
  • commitment to academic study, staying power, perseverance and intellectual potential.

  Commitment
  Medicine is a profession that requires commitment. It is important that the choice to enter medicine is made with insight into where it might lead, the role of life-long learning, and with awareness that the course is a training for professional practice.
  
  In considering the commitment involved in becoming a doctor, the following web pages provide important guidance:

  • Medical Schools Council
  • General Medical Council

• Fitness to practise

  It is important that the choice to enter medicine is made with insight into where it might lead, the role of life-long learning, and with awareness that the course is a training for professional practise. Medical students are expected to behave with the utmost integrity from the very start of their training.

  At St Andrews, you will be working within a professional environment and will be studying to obtain a university degree that automatically allows you to progress to your clinical training at a separate institution. It is therefore essential that you are able to fulfil fitness to practise criteria based on the General Medical Council’s publication of Good Medical Practice, incorporating the points outlined in duties of a doctor.

  At the start of each year, medical students at St Andrews are required to submit a signed declaration (Medical School Agreement) which indicates what is expected of young professionals in training. If a student's conduct falls below acceptable standards, this could lead to a student being referred to the Professionalism and Welfare Committee or the Fitness to Practise Committee. Included in this declaration is a requirement for students to consent to being videoed as part of their training in clinical medicine. Applicants should read the document carefully before accepting an offer from St Andrews.

  For more information please see:

  • Medical School Agreement
  • Standards of fitness to train policy
  • HEOPS guidance for medical students
  • Guidance on adjustments for students training in regulated professions
  • Expectations of new applicants to Medicine.

• Health, disability and reasonable adjustments

  A disability need not be a bar to becoming a doctor. Applicants who have a disability or health issue will need to consider what effect that could have on patients and colleagues and how it would impact on their capacity to function as a medical practitioner in an effective and safe manner.

  It is important that disabilities and health conditions are declared at the time of application so that any reasonable adjustments required can be put in place by the time of entry to the medicine course.

  More information and details of who to contact for advice can be found in the disability section of the School of Medicine's handbook.

  For more general information, see:

  • HEOPS guidance for medical students
  • HEOPS guidance on adjustments for students training in regulated professions.

  Short films about health and disability can be found on the GMC website.

  See a short video about accessing support in the Medical School at St Andrews.

• Criminal record declaration

  Applicants to Medical degree courses at the University are required to declare any criminal involvement on their application. Applications from students who have declared a criminal conviction are subject to the same academic selection process as all applications and will be assessed using the admissions process outlined in the University’s admissions policy.

  Entrants to Medicine will also be required to undertake satisfactory criminal record screening as part of the non-academic conditions of their offer. This involves joining the Protecting Vulnerable Groups (PVG) Scheme. The scheme provides the applicant and the university with a live update of the person's fitness to work with regulated adults or children. In addition, students will be asked to declare any minor historical offences, warnings or cautions as well as any which are still pending.

  For more information see PVG guidance or contact the School.

• Occupational health and immunisation

  Entrants to Medicine will be subject to an occupational health check: a pre-entry questionnaire and screening on arrival.

  Entrants will be screened for tuberculosis, hepatitis B, hepatitis C and HIV infection; any necessary immunisations and antibody tests will be performed. All entrants are required to complete a course of immunisation against hepatitis B virus. There will be no financial charge to entrants for this service.

  Infection with hepatitis B, hepatitis C or HIV does not mean that training to be a doctor is impossible, but applicants should consider at this stage whether or not this is the career option that they wish to pursue. Any entrant student who is found to be a carrier of hepatitis B, hepatitis C or HIV will require counselling as such a situation may place restrictions on the student's clinical training or practice following qualification. Applicants who have had an infection of this nature and wish to discuss this further before making a decision should email medsupport@st-andrews.ac.uk. 

  For more information, please see HEOPS guidance for medical students and HEOPS guidance on adjustments for students training in regulated professions.

• Age

  There are no lower or upper restrictions on the age of applicants, but those who will be 16 at the point of entry to the University should refer to the University’s admissions policy.