Medicine

Medicine is an applied science, but it is equally about dealing sympathetically and effectively with individuals, whether they be patients or colleagues. Medicine increasingly poses difficult ethical dilemmas, and, above all, medicine is constantly and rapidly developing and providing a stimulating challenge to practitioners and medical scientists alike. Medicine offers a broad range of careers from general practice to the specialties of hospital practice and to medical research.

Medicine has been studied at Oxford from as early as the 14th century, although a Clinical School was established as recently as 1936 by a benefaction from Lord Nuffield for postgraduate teaching and research. Clinical student training started during the Second World War when medical students were evacuated from London. Today, the Pre-clinical and Clinical Medicine courses at Oxford provide a well rounded intellectual training with particular emphasis on the basic science research that underpins medicine.

Although the Medical School at Oxford has expanded in recent times, it remains relatively small, allowing students and staff to get to know one another and benefit from a relaxed and friendly atmosphere.

Aside from becoming a GP or a brain surgeon, an array of speciality training pathways is available after obtaining a medical qualification, ranging from anaesthesia or emergency medicine through obstetrics or ophthalmology to paediatrics or psychiatry.

Of course, you need not remain confined to the surgery or the operating theatre: the lecture theatre or the laboratory could also beckon. Some of our graduates end up leading the education of the next generation of doctors or directing biomedical research. You don’t need to know right now what you want to do when you qualify: the Medical School organises careers sessions for final year clinical students and helps students learn about and apply for foundation house officer posts.

BM BCh graduates are entitled to provisional registration with the General Medical Council (GMC) with a licence to practise, subject to demonstrating to the GMC that their fitness to practise is not impaired.