Leicester Medical School

Leicester Medical School is a medical school in England. Part of the University of Leicester, it offers five-year and four-year (graduate entry ) courses in medicine, awarding its graduates the MBChB degree. About 10% of students on the five year course choose to take an intercalated BSc Honours Degree, usually between their third and fourth years of study, and which is awarded following either a year of full time research or completing the final year of a standard degree course (e.g. medical genetics, physiology, French).

Course Format
Leicester teaches an "integrated" course, which places emphasis on early patient contact and the development of clinical and interpersonal skills alongside the learning of basic medical sciences.

The five-year course is split into phase 1 and phase 2, each of 2&frac12; years. The phase 1 course is divided into semesters, each of 3-5 modules, and focuses on basic medical science initially (biological molecules, metabolism etc.), moving on to modules based around body systems (cardiovascular, respiratory etc.).

Learning is supported with course materials and lectures (cf problem-based learning), and supplemented by a clinical component, where students spend at least 1 day a week in hospitals or with simulated patients, learning clinical and communication skills.

Phase 2 is mostly hospital-based, with 13 seven-week attachments in a variety of clinical specialties (from 2007 all clinical students will undertake attachments in a core of specialties, specifically cardiorespiratory medicine, gastrointestinal medicine, musculoskeletal medicine, and anaesthesia and critical care). In their early third year, students sort themselves into pairs (clinical partnerships); these pairs will work together for the rest of the course. For each attachment, clinical partnerships are attached to between 1 and 3 (usually related) clinical specialties, so the student-consultant ratio is at least 1:1 (although ward- and seminar-based group teaching sessions are also common).

Examinations
Each pre-clinical module finishes with a "summative" assessment, which is graded as unsatisfactory, borderline-satisfactory, satisfactory or excellent. Most module exams are short-answer question-based and usually last 1 hour, some have an OSCPE component, and the musculoskeletal exam is supplemented with an anatomy viva. Throughout the pre-clinical phase there are also occasional IMSA examinations, which test communication and clinical skills. The pre-clinical phase finishes with the "Phase I" assessment, an integrated exam which tests all knowledge gained in the course thus far, placing particular emphasis on sociology, psychology, epidemiology and peau d'orange.

During the clinical phase of the course, there are assessments in clinical methods (general practice), obstetrics and gynaecology, and paediatrics and child health. There is also an Intermediate Clinical Exam in the fourth year, which tests the students' clinical skills with 2-5 long-case assessments.

The final exams take place in the May of the students' final year, and consist of 4-8 long-case assessments and two, 3-hour written papers (again, short-answer questions).

History
The school was formed following the recommendations of the Royal Commission on Medical Education (1965-68) (who issued their report, popularly known as the Todd Report in 1968). The Commission estimated that by 1994 we would need to train more than 4500 doctors a year in the United Kingdom, and that this would need to be achieved by both increasing the numbers of medical students at existing medical schools, and by establishing a number of new medical schools. The report recommended that new medical schools should be immediately established at the Universities of Nottingham, Southampton and Leicester. Teaching at Leicester Medical School commenced in 1975.

In 2000, Leicester Medical School assisted the University of Warwick in the foundation of the Leicester-Warwick Medical School, combining Leicester's own school with a new institution based in Warwick. The project was successful, and in 2006, some time after the Warwick school's first students had graduated, the two institutions separated, creating Warwick Medical School, and recreating Leicester Medical School. Warwick is currently the only medical school in the UK which restricts entry to graduate students.

As of 2006 applicants will be required to sit the UKCAT admission test.

Extracurricular Activities
In common with other UK medical schools, Leicester has a thriving medical students' society, LUSUMA, which organises social and sporting events for the students.