The Aston University Medicine course

Each year of the course is a single module worth 120 credits, split into shorter blocks that each cover a topic or body system. In Phase 1 the blocks are mainly science, but each topic is linked to how it matters for patients. Alongside them run Introduction to Clinical Practice blocks, where you learn to talk with patients, carry out consultations and start reasoning towards a diagnosis.

You are taught by doctors and other professionals from clinical practice, industry and research. Aston stresses learning with your peers: applying what you know in groups and solving problems together. It also expects you to become a self-directed learner quickly, deciding what you need to study and organising your own learning.

From Year 3 the balance shifts. Most of your time is spent on placements, which Aston builds into modules called clinical apprenticeships, learning by working alongside doctors and other staff. Lectures, group work, workshops and independent study continue, but they support what you see on the wards and in GP surgeries.

The teaching methods and block names in this guide come from Aston's course page for September 2027 entry. Aston reviews its modules regularly and posts any changes on its course pages, so treat the names as a guide.

You meet patients in your first term. In November of Year 1 you spend a week in a GP surgery, placed with at least one other student. The week runs Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm, except Wednesday afternoon, which is kept free for university sport and societies. A GP tutor organises the week and gives you about 20 minutes of individual feedback at the end.

This first week is observational, so you watch and talk rather than treat. You sit in on GP and nurse clinics, spend time on reception and in the waiting room talking to patients, and ask patients and staff for feedback on how you came across. Depending on the practice, you may also join home visits, baby clinics, clinics for long-term conditions, team meetings or community nursing.

Your second GP week comes at the end of the summer term, in June. You practise the early clinical skills you have learned in Year 1 and see the same chosen patient again. In Year 2 you spend nine days in general practice, in groups of about eight at the same surgery, taught directly by a GP tutor. The focus is on consultation, examination and diagnostic reasoning skills.

On campus you practise with simulated patients and hear from expert patients about living with their conditions. From Year 3, when Phase 2 begins, you are on placement in hospitals and GP surgeries for most of the year.

You are assessed through in-course assignments, computer-based knowledge exams, practical clinical skills exams and continuous assessment of your professional behaviour. The clinical exams are Objective Structured Clinical Examinations (OSCEs). In an OSCE you move round a circuit of short stations, each with an examiner. At each one you carry out a set task, such as examining or talking to a patient, who is often a trained actor. Aston uses OSCEs from Year 1.

Each year is a single 120-credit stage, and you must pass every part to move on. There is no condonement, so a strong mark in one exam cannot make up for a fail in another. If you fail a part, the exam board can let you resit only that part, called a referral, before the next year starts, or ask you to repeat the year. You can be referred once per year, repeat any year only once, and must finish within seven years.

Placements are assessed too. Each block comes with workbooks or a portfolio of set tasks, you are observed consulting with patients, and the hospital or GP practice hosting you writes an end-of-placement report. You need an up-to-date portfolio to progress. By graduation you must be able to carry out safely the 23 practical procedures listed in the GMC's Practical skills and procedures (2019). These are tracked in an ePortfolio, an online record, and signed off in Year 5.

In your final year you sit the UK Medical Licensing Assessment (UKMLA). Since 2024-25, every UK medical degree must include a pass in it. The Applied Knowledge Test (AKT) is set nationally: two computer-based papers of 100 single best answer questions, two hours each, on consecutive days. The Clinical and Professional Skills Assessment (CPSA) is Aston's own final OSCE, which must meet GMC requirements.

In the version Aston described to the GMC, which found it met the requirements in February 2024, the CPSA has 15 stations over three days, five a day. Each station lasts eight minutes, with two minutes' reading time. Examiners mark process, clinical judgement and communication. You must pass every part of the Professionalism in Practice assessment before you can sit it. Aston told the GMC the format may change as year groups grow.

When the GMC visited in 2022/23, final-year students were due to sit the Prescribing Safety Assessment (PSA), a national online test of safe prescribing, after a practice attempt in Year 4. Passing it was not then a condition of graduating, and a retake was offered. Nationally, every doctor must have passed the PSA to complete the first foundation year (F1).

• The MBChB has no degree classes. Honours may be given to around 10% of each graduating year, based on marks weighted 10, 15, 20, 25 and 30% across Years 1 to 5.
• If you have to leave the course, you can receive an award for the stages you have passed. After Year 1 this is a Certificate of Higher Education, and after Year 2 a Diploma of Higher Education. After Year 3 it is a Bachelor of Medical Studies BSc (Hons), and after Year 4 a Bachelor of Advanced Medical Studies (Hons).

From Year 3 most of your time is spent with Aston's partner NHS trusts and GP practices. The school says these serve a wide mix of communities, from inner-city areas to towns and rural locations. It has teaching agreements with more than 100 GP surgeries. The sites named in official sources are listed below.

University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust says Aston students in Years 3, 4 and 5 are based in three of its hospitals. The Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust says medical students from Aston rotate through New Cross Hospital. The Dudley Group NHS Foundation Trust says Russells Hall Hospital has taught Aston Year 4 and 5 students since 2022. Walsall Healthcare NHS Trust says its teaching academy is affiliated to Aston Medical School.

Aston says many clinical exams are held at partner hospitals in Birmingham, Dudley and Wolverhampton, and the GMC watched the final-year OSCE at New Cross Hospital in March 2023. On its 2022/23 visit the GMC also went to Sandwell General Hospital. Its trust, Sandwell and West Birmingham NHS Trust, has since moved acute care to the new Midland Metropolitan University Hospital in Smethwick, opened in October 2024.

Some placements are further from Birmingham. In 2022/23 the GMC spoke to students who had been placed in Hereford. Year 4 students said their accommodation there had improved after feedback from the year above, and final-year students valued 12 simulation sessions during a six-week block.

For Year 1, GP surgeries must be within about an hour of the medical school by public transport. On placement you are supported by clinical teaching fellows, doctors employed to teach students, and in 2022/23 the GMC found students valued them. That year, final-year students at University Hospitals Birmingham also joined simulation sessions carrying a bleep, the pager hospital doctors use. At Russells Hall Hospital, the Dudley trust says each rotation comes with a timetable, a named clinical supervisor you meet regularly, simulation training and formal teaching.

Student Selected Components (SSCs) are parts of the course where you choose what to study. They run in each year of Phase 2, Years 3, 4 and 5, and let you go deeper into an area of medicine that interests you.

One SSC option is a research project with the Aston Medical Research Institute. Its four research themes are maternal health, mental health, cardiovascular medicine and regenerative medicine, which is about repairing or replacing damaged cells and tissues.

After your final exams in Year 5 you have a six-week elective. An elective is a placement of your choice, and Aston allows it in the UK or anywhere suitable in the world, so you can see medicine in a different setting before you start work.

Intercalating means pausing your MBChB for a year to complete a separate, more specialised degree, then rejoining the course. At Aston it is optional, but the school encourages it. You normally intercalate after Year 3, though you can also apply to do it after Year 4.

Aston's own options are BSc degrees in Biomedicine and Biological Sciences, and the MBiol in Biomedicine. Master's options are Artificial Intelligence for Health, Addiction and Mental Health, Bioinformatics and Genomic Medicine, Biosciences, Neuroscience for Drug Delivery, Stem Cell and Regenerative Medicine, and Public Health (MPH). You can also intercalate at another university.

On an Aston programme, your tuition for the year is paid at the home rate. You also receive an annual stipend of £20,780 in 2026-27, paid monthly. The funding comes from the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR), the national body that funds health and care research. International students pay the difference between home and overseas tuition. If you intercalate at another university, you pay its fees and receive no stipend.

Places are limited and competitive. Aston starts asking for applications from the middle of Year 2, and the deadline is normally the end of February before the year you intercalate. You send a 200 to 400 word personal statement endorsed by your personal academic tutor, with a transcript of your grades. Assessors look for strong marks in the early years and interest in a career that includes medical teaching, research, or teaching combined with clinical work. Decisions follow your end-of-year results.

Medical students have their own facilities on Aston's campus. The clinical skills centre has Sonosite ultrasound machines and life-size anatomical models. There is also a simulated hospital ward with mid-fidelity manikins, life-size patient models with some built-in features for practising examinations and procedures. The ward includes an acute care simulation room, where you practise looking after patients who suddenly become very unwell.

A newer simulation suite has high-fidelity manikins, computer-controlled models that respond to what you do, so you can practise real-life scenarios. There is also a critical care simulation unit. SMOTS camera systems record simulation sessions discreetly, so tutors can play back your performance and give you feedback straight away.

For physiology practicals, PowerLab equipment measures blood pressure, lung capacity, ECG (the heart's electrical activity), EMG (muscle activity) and pulse oximetry (blood oxygen levels). Group work rooms have C-touch screens, and private study spaces are open 24 hours a day.

Every student has a Personal Tutor for advice on study and personal issues. There is also a Student Support Lead, whose job is to help with the particular demands of being a medical student. If you are making slow progress, the school's Support and Concerns Process is used to offer help. University-wide services, such as the library and the Learning Development Centre, sit behind these.

When the GMC met Year 4 and 5 students in 2022/23, they valued regular meetings with tutors, personal development plans and access to clinical teaching fellows on placement. Students could give feedback through open mic sessions, student-staff committees, meetings with the Dean and an anonymous survey at the end of each block.

For careers, you can book a series of appointments with the school's medical careers lead. The school works with the British Medical Association (BMA) and NHS careers teams in the West Midlands, including help with your UK Foundation Programme application. If you fail the final OSCE, the Student Support Lead and your Year Lead help you draw up a plan to improve.