Courses
- BM BCh Medicine
- BA Medical Sciences
- MBiomedSci Biomedical Sciences (not accepting applications for entry)
Average intake at Queen’s: 6
The Course
Queen’s enjoys a strong tradition in medicine and the biomedical sciences. Lord Florey, the Nobel Laureate who introduced penicillin as an antibiotic, was a Provost of Queen’s, and Sir Edward Abraham, who discovered the cephalosporin class of antibiotics, was a student here, and later became an honorary fellow of the College. The College Medical Society arranges guest speaker events and dinners, providing a lively forum for the discussion of medical and biomedical matters.
The three pre-clinical years of the Medicine course include the first two parts of the Bachelor of Medicine degree, which are examined at the end of the third term and the beginning of the sixth, respectively. Medical students then complete a BA degree in Medical Sciences, from the sixth term until the ninth (the ‘Final Honours School’). The objective of the BA course is for the student to develop a critical understanding of research work in specialist areas of their own choosing.
Pre-clinical students remain in Oxford for the three years of clinical training (based at the John Radcliffe Hospital) provided they have completed the pre-clinical course, though they may sometimes change college at this stage if they so wish.
Teaching
At Queen’s, pre-clinical medical students have two or three tutorials per week during the courses for the first BM. The tutorial teaching provided by the College covers a wide range of disciplines. During the Final Honour School courses, undergraduates often have tutorials outside the College with specialist tutors who are in many cases leaders in their respective fields of biomedical research. Lectures and practical classes operate in parallel with the tutorials and are organised at the University level through the Medical Sciences Teaching Centre on South Parks Road.
During the clinical course students receive both tutorial and bedside teaching from the Clinical Tutors and Lecturers and from other clinicians with relevant expertise. This teaching runs in parallel with the extensive teaching programme provided by the clinical school.
Admissions
Queen’s welcomes applications for the six-year undergraduate Medicine course, for which we have a fixed quota of six places per year. We do not currently accept applications for the accelerated (graduate entry) Medicine course or the course in Biomedical Sciences.
The admissions process includes a rigorous, centralised shortlisting procedure; shortlisted candidates are distributed between colleges in proportion to the number of places available and are each interviewed at two colleges. One of these will normally be the college of first choice (if a college was specified by the applicant) and the other will be assigned essentially at random. Offers are made after careful consideration of all aspects of the application except college preference. As a consequence, it is quite common for an applicant to be offered a place at a college that was not their first choice.
While the precise format for interviews varies, each interview will normally involve two or more interviewers and will address a published set of criteria (see Medicine selection criteria). We consider tutorial teaching to be an essential part of the learning experience at Oxford, so during the interview we often aim to recreate the feel of one of these small-group teaching sessions. Ability to engage in a discussion of medical or scientific issues, to appreciate different points of view and to process new information effectively will be more highly valued than simple factual knowledge at this stage of the selection process.
