Medicine

Medicine is the study and practice of diagnosing, treating, and preventing disease and injury in human beings. A medical degree is one of the most demanding and most consequential undergraduate programmes a student can undertake, requiring sustained academic rigour, genuine compassion for people in vulnerable circumstances, and the practical clinical skills to examine patients, interpret investigations, and make sound decisions under pressure. The programme prepares you for the Foundation Programme, the first step of the clinical training pathway that eventually leads to qualification as a fully practising doctor.

At Aston University you will study this five-year full-time programme, which integrates scientific understanding with clinical learning from the early stages of the course. Aston's medical school has been developed with a particular focus on producing doctors who are ready to contribute to patient care in the NHS from the moment they qualify. Across the programme you will study the biomedical sciences that underpin medicine, including anatomy, physiology, biochemistry, pathology, pharmacology, and microbiology, alongside the clinical skills of history-taking, physical examination, and diagnostic reasoning.

You will spend increasing amounts of time in clinical placements as the programme progresses, working in hospitals, GP practices, community health settings, and specialist departments under the supervision of NHS clinicians. The typical entry tariff is 168 points, and admission to medicine is highly competitive.

All medicine graduates who complete the programme successfully are eligible to apply for the Foundation Programme and, subject to satisfactory completion, to register with the General Medical Council as doctors. From there, the careers open to you span every clinical speciality, from general practice and emergency medicine to cardiology, psychiatry, surgery, and public health, as well as roles in medical research, medical education, healthcare management, and global health.