Medicine and Surgery (Graduate Entry)
UCAS code A101
- Study mode
- Full-time
- Duration
- 4 years
- Start date and application deadlines
-
- Start date
- September 2025
- Apply by:
- Starts on:
About this course
Study medicine at Liverpool and prepare to deliver outstanding patient care, in both current and future healthcare systems. Learn how to apply a compassionate, evidence-based and patient-centred approach to your clinical practice as a doctor. The main medicine programme is our A100 ( five-year) programme but graduates with home-status may consider their eligibility to apply to our A101 (four-year) programme which is re-opening in August 2024 and is currently open to applications via UCAS.
Introduction
Your interest and skill in medical scholarship will be actively developed with us, underpinned by a vision to harness expertise from far and wide. You’ll learn the necessary knowledge, skills and professional behaviours to safely and ethically practice medicine.
Our students benefit from GP-led small group teaching sessions, access to some of the best specialist clinical units in the UK, and enhanced learning opportunities through our state-of-the-art facilities.
We ensure our graduates are able to meet the core requirements set out by the General Medical Council, and become lifelong learners committed to their own professional development.
Programme in detail
The curriculum is delivered under a spiral model, under which concepts are introduced at an appropriate level, and revisited with increasing levels of complexity as the course progresses.
The curriculum is organised and delivered through a number of supra-themes, which fall into specifically defined themes.
In year one, the Graduate Entry programme has its own bespoke timetable, with the cohort working together through the accelerated medicine programme. The Graduate entry cohort will study together for workshops, seminars and practical skills (e.g. clinical skills and anatomy) sessions, but occasionally join the larger A100 cohort for opportunities such as Leadership and management and lab-based research activities. All teaching in year one takes place on the University of Liverpool campus. At the end of the academic year, you’ll experience your first clinical placements in the NHS.
In years two to four, you’ll join the same timetable as the students registered on the A100 programme to undertake clinical placements. Local NHS Trusts, GP practices, hospices, specialist services and community services deliver the placement components of the programme. Each hospital placement takes place at one, or more, of the North West hospital sites. During the course of their studies, students will be expected to rotate through the different clinical providers for variable lengths of time, dependent upon placement block requirements and length. This block rotational model has been designed to allow improved student ability in managing transitions and working across different clinical environments to help prepare them for junior medical postgraduate training.
What you'll learn
- How to deliver outstanding patient care
- The knowledge, skills and values essential for a confident medical career in a 21st-century healthcare environment
- A core foundation in basic and clinical science
- An understanding of the human body that will underpin your future skills
- An understanding of how illness and disease presents in different settings
- How chronic disease is managed within the community using a team approach
Course content
Discover what you'll learn, what you'll study, and how you'll be taught and assessed.
Year one
Year one recognises that the Graduate Entry programme is an “accelerated” programme, and therefore has been designed to cover the core knowledge base, skills and understanding students will need for a career in medicine.
Starting in August, the first year focuses on basic and clinical sciences, taught using an integrated ‘Systems’ approach. Each System Block includes physiology, biochemistry, pathology, microbiology, immunology, pharmacology and anatomy, genetics and cell and molecular biology. The emphasis of year one teaching is on the structure and function of the human body under ‘normal’ conditions, as well as what happens in ‘abnormality’ and illness-related change.
Students will have a mid year summative assessment in the form of a written paper, to ensure they are on track with the content.
Teaching is delivered through a mix of recorded lectures, face to face practical and small group sessions and clinical skills sessions (where students will learn how to examine the components of the systems studied, as well as take part in simulation exercises). Communication for Clinical Practice sessions in small groups with simulated patients prepare students for the clinical placements. Students in year one also take part in a unique leadership development course, which is run in collaboration with 208 Field Hospital.
Programme details and modules listed are illustrative only and subject to change.
Year two
Years two and three have an increasing focus on the application of skills learnt in the first year into clinical practice, across a range of core and increasingly complex clinical presentations and encounters.
In year two students gain exposure to the key principles of medicine and surgery, with the focus on understanding core clinical concepts.
Students spend a series of four-week blocks on clinical placement, where each placement block is preceded by an ‘Academic‘ week. This week incorporates approximately 1.5 days of lectures delivered to the whole cohort, and then rotation-specific teaching, e.g. pre-placement sessions, Community Clinical Teaching (Primary Care), clinical skills preparation, simulation sessions and time for student-led Research and Scholarship projects. This ‘Just in time’ approach to teaching, which encourages students to revisit and develop knowledge and skills just before they are needed, prepares students to learn to recognise health problems, develop the skills needed to diagnose illness and disease, and manage patients.
Students rotate through a variety of integrated hospital and community-based settings in order to complete placements. Students are expected to participate fully in clinical care in these settings, both through timetabled activities and additional opportunities (in agreement with supervising clinical staff). All of these placements provide opportunities (and expectations) to work with clinical teams and care for patients in a variety of healthcare settings.
Programme details and modules listed are illustrative only and subject to change.
Year three
In year three, the combination of academic weeks and placement blocks is again used to provide students with more specialist and challenging placement experiences, including a focus on mental health, specialist placements in neurology, paediatrics and obstetrics and gynaecology and a nationally recognised placement of excellence in palliative care.
At the end of year three students are also required to undertake a four-week elective. Many students choose to study abroad during this period.
Programme details and modules listed are illustrative only and subject to change.
Year four
The final year is spent gaining intensive clinical experience in hospitals and the community to support students to transition successfully beyond undergraduate training and begin work as a doctor.
Students experience Emergency and Acute Medicine and Surgery, and GP placements during this year, and have a ward shadowing experience block that allows them to consolidate complex clinical skills and professional attributes required of them for their Foundation Year post. Students are also required to undertake a research project such as an audit or Quality Improvement Project, a community based project or a specialist placement of their own choosing.
Placement experiences are supported by academic “Preparation for Practice” weeks, support for the required national examinations and a full week of interprofessional simulation, ensuring students are able to demonstrate the skills need to deliver complex, acute care within a multi-professional team.
Programme details and modules listed are illustrative only and subject to change.
Teaching and assessment
How you'll learn
The School uses an integrated teaching model. The learning of medical sciences is enhanced by the clinical context of a systems-based approach. The development of understanding of clinical practice is supported by a ‘just in time’ model of academic weeks that relate to each clinical placement and case-based teaching within each placement. Specialist clinical centres from across the region provide students with a wide range of exceptional placement experiences during which students complete structured learning activities as well as taking advantage of near patient learning opportunities.
The School is at the forefront of technology enhanced learning, utilising mobile learning, virtual reality, simulation and a personalised e-portfolio to provide our students with the best possible experience and prepare them for the technological developments that will shape their future careers in healthcare.
We take the development of clinical leaders seriously and use a programme of experiential learning opportunities to develop students’ leadership and followership skills in a range of situational contexts.
The remainder of the course is delivered using a mix of interactive and didactic lecturing; case based learning, small group teaching, clinical skills and simulation workshops, Human Anatomy Resource Centre (HARC) sessions, communication skills practicals and a staged programme of research skills development.
The breadth of learning and teaching activities used within the Medical School ensures students have the underpinning knowledge and skills to become the safe clinical practitioners of tomorrow.
How you're assessed
Both formative and summative assessment take place within the programme. There is an emphasis on assessment for learning through the use of subject specific tests such as quizzes, anatomy spotters and formative Objective Structured Clinical Examinations (OSCEs).
Summative assessment takes place at the end of each year and includes written papers and practical exams in the form of OSCES and LOCAS.
We use technology to facilitate online marking and annotated feedback of written assignments, deliver formative online tests for students at the end of each teaching block and collate and deliver OSCE data, providing students with more useful feedback as a result.
A bespoke electronic portfolio, integrated throughout the curriculum provides students with a personalised learning space where they can collect evidence and develop their skills through reflective activities. The e-portfolio charts the student learning journey over the course of the programme.
Liverpool Hallmarks
We have a distinctive approach to education, the Liverpool Curriculum Framework, which focuses on research-connected teaching, active learning, and authentic assessment to ensure our students graduate as digitally fluent and confident global citizens.
The Liverpool Curriculum framework sets out our distinctive approach to education. Our teaching staff support our students to develop academic knowledge, skills, and understanding alongside our graduate attributes:
- Digital fluency
- Confidence
- Global citizenship
Our curriculum is characterised by the three Liverpool Hallmarks:
- Research-connected teaching
- Active learning
- Authentic assessment
All this is underpinned by our core value of inclusivity and commitment to providing a curriculum that is accessible to all students.
Course options
Studying with us means you can tailor your degree to suit you. Here's what is available on this course.
Global opportunities
University of Liverpool students can choose from an exciting range of study placements at partner universities worldwide.
Year in China
Immerse yourself in Chinese culture on an optional additional year at Xi'an Jiaotong Liverpool University in stunning Suzhou.
- Learn Chinese
- Study in a bustling world heritage city
- Improve employment prospects
- Study Chinese culture
- 30 minutes from Shanghai
- Learn new skills
Summer abroad
Spend a summer abroad on a study placement or research project at one of our worldwide partner institutions.
- Spend a summer abroad in addition to your degree programme
- Study abroad without adding an extra year
- Choose any summer between your first and final year of study
- Get the chance to study subjects outside your discipline
Where can I spend a summer abroad on this course?
- Hong Kong
- Japan
- South Korea
Language study
Every student at The University of Liverpool can study a language as part of, or alongside their degree. You can choose:
- A dedicated languages degree
- A language as a joint or major/minor degree
- Language modules (selected degrees)
- Language classes alongside your studies
Intercalation available
Earn an additional undergraduate or master's degree by adding a year of intercalated study. Once you've completed your intercalation year - usually following your third year - you'll finish the rest of your programme.
- Pursue in-depth study in a subject that interests you
- Complete an additional degree in only one year
- Available to students from any UK university
- Pay the standard full-time fee for one academic year
Your experience
The School of Medicine is one of the largest providers of medical education in the country. Students have access to facilities such as the unrivalled Human Anatomy Resource Centre and Clinical Skills Resource Centre, as well as our Virtual Learning Environment. We also offer access to a comprehensive placement network with nationally recognised centres of excellence.
Explore where you'll study
Virtual tour
Supporting your learning
From arrival to alumni, we’re with you all the way:
- Careers and employability support, including help with career planning, understanding the job market and strengthening your networking skills
- A dedicated student services team can help you get assistance with your studies, help with health and wellbeing, and access to financial advice
- Confidential counselling and support to help students with personal problems affecting their studies and general wellbeing
- Support for students with differing needs from the Disability advice and guidance team. They can identify and recommend appropriate support provisions for you.
An exicting place to study
- Centre of Excellence in Teaching and Learning
- Flexible delivery supporting health professionals throughout their careers
- Access to Centres of Clinical Excellence across the UK
- Programmes designed for international impact overseas
- Training health professionals for over 180 years
- Committed to technologically innovative teaching with state-of-the-art facilities.
It always said in the brochure that there would be early clinical contact, but I never really expected how much. It really is great to be on the ward - and that’s how you learn. The Medical School is very good and very supportive. It’s definitely set me up well for my future career, and I’m looking forward to getting into the job.
Chat with our students
Want to find out more about student life?
Chat with our student ambassadors and ask any questions you have.
Careers and employability
Our programmes are for individuals who wish to become qualified medical practitioners. A diverse range of careers are open to you as a medical graduate, varying from medical science, perhaps laboratory-based research, through public health and the development of health care strategies to clinical practice in the hospital and community.