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Destination Medicine

Destination Medicine is a non-residential summer school for widening participation students.

Destination Medicine is a summer school run by the University of Liverpool, aimed at widening participation students who live in the Liverpool City Region. Students will take part in practical sessions led by our academics and undergraduate medical students, and be offered information about, and support with the application process to Medical School.

Applications will open for the Summer School in January 2025. The summer school will take place in June and July, with a single day visit to Whiston Hospital on Monday 30th June, and activities on campus from Monday 14th to Thursday 17th July. Please ensure you can attend on these dates before you make an application.

Students must apply before Monday 5th May to be considered for a place on the programme.

What does it involve?

Destination Medicine students will gain a detailed insight into life as a Medical Student at the University of Liverpool. The programme of activities varies between years. Previously, activities have included anatomy challenges, opportunities to meet practising doctors, personal statement and admissions test support, and trips to local hospitals to experience medical teaching facilities.

The Summer School aims to inspire confidence in students from a widening participation background to progress onto Medicine. The programme aims to ensure that students feel well-informed about Medicine and Higher Education, and that students develop the practical and soft skills required to support their university application, and future study.

Who can apply?

Destination Medicine is a highly competitive programme and is usually oversubscribed. Places are limited due to its practical nature. We welcome applications from students from a widening participation background, studying in the Liverpool City Region.

Students must have a strong desire to study Medicine and be capable of achieving the minimum grades required for entry. It is essential that you thoroughly check the entry criteria for the University of Liverpool’s Medicine programme, including GCSE and A-level requirements.

For students participating in the Liverpool Scholars Programme, it is important to check the adjusted entry criteria.

Priority will be given to applicants who are currently participating in the Liverpool Scholars Programme and to those who have participated in Merseyside Young Health and Life Scientists.

To be eligible for Destination Medicine, students should be studying at a state school in the Liverpool City Region, and meet a minimum of two of the following:

  • Live in an area which has a high level of financial, social or economic deprivation. This is defined by home postcode. (1)
  • Be receipt of or eligible for Free School Meals or have been eligible for Free School Meals at a point in the last six years.
  • Be in receipt of or entitled to discretionary payments/16-19 bursary/Pupil Premium at school/college.
  • Come from a home where neither parent attended university in the UK or abroad. (If one or more parent is currently studying their first degree or graduated from their first degree in the last five years, an application will be considered eligible for this criteria).

Or alternatively meet the following:

  • Have previously participated in the Merseyside Young Medics / Merseyside Young Health and Life Scientists Programme at the University of Liverpool.
  • Be living in, or have lived in local authority care, or be estranged/living independently from your family.
  • Be a young carer.
  • Have experienced a significant period of disruption to their education. We take into consideration a variety of circumstances, but typically work with students who have experienced one of the following: disruption due to significant ill-health; significant family issues; significant bereavement; students who identify under the transgender umbrella; students who are refugees or asylum seekers.

Eligibility – Further Information

  1. Postcode

An area which has a high level of financial, social or economic deprivation, as defined by home postcodes which are in the top 40% most deprived wards within the Index of Multiple Deprivation (IMD). For more information on IMD please visit the Gov.UK website.

  1. Care experience

Those defined as living in, or who have lived in local authority care are those who are being looked after by their local authority. This means they are either living with foster parents/other family members such as grandparents, at home under the supervision of social services, in a residential children’s home or in another residential setting such as a school or secure unit. It also refers to someone who has experienced a period of three months in the care of the local authority within the last ten years.

  1. Estranged students/students living independently

Those defined as estranged/living independently from their families are students studying without the support and approval of their parents due to a breakdown in their relationship – this might be biological, step or adoptive parents, and sometimes their wider family members.

  1. Young carers

Those defined as young carers are those who are under the age of 18 who help to look after someone in their family or a friend. There is no time limit on the amount of care they provide for their dependents, this is just above and beyond what is normally expected.

Applications close 5pm, Monday 5th May.