The Edinburgh Medicine courseWhat you actually study, and where you will be
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The Edinburgh medicine course at a glance
The only six-year MBChB in Scotland. Year 3 is a full research year leading to an honours BMedSci, and the clinical years run across Lothian and the south of Scotland. Clinical method — history taking and examination — starts in year 2.
How Edinburgh teaches medicine
"A combination of lectures, tutorials, laboratory and project work, clinical placements, simulation, self-directed online learning", with Group-Based Learning (GBL) tutorials.
What that means day to day
When you first meet patients
Year 2 introduces clinical practice including history taking and examination; hospital and general-practice placements begin formally in year 4.
Year by year at Edinburgh
Where you will actually be at Edinburgh
Placement geography is the part of a medicine course that changes your life most and appears in prospectuses least. Here is what Edinburgh publishes.
Lothian teaching hospitals plus other regional sites mainly across the south of Scotland, and general practices.
Intercalation at Edinburgh
Built in — year 3 is the honours BMedSci research year.
Worth knowing about Edinburgh
- The only Scottish institution offering a six-year MBChB.
- A mandatory year 6 elective, with partners including the University of Sydney, Columbia University and Weill Cornell Medicine.
Applying to Edinburgh?
How to get into Edinburgh
Entry requirements, UCAT, personal statement and interview, step by step.
Open the guide →Edinburgh UCAT cut-offs and offers
UCAT cut-offs, A-level offers, interview format and decision dates.
See the requirements →Compare Edinburgh with other schools
Put the teaching style, anatomy teaching and placements next to another school.
Open the comparison →Prepare for the Edinburgh interview
Format breakdown, school-specific sample questions and prep tips from tutors who interviewed here.
Read the guide →Where this Edinburgh course profile came from
Every course detail on this page was taken from University of Edinburgh's own course page, read on 2026-09-11.
Primary source: University of Edinburgh — official course information.
Courses are restructured between cycles. Anything here that decides your application — an anatomy offer, a placement city, a compulsory intercalated year — should be confirmed against the official page for your entry year.
Applying to Edinburgh?
We have helped hundreds of applicants turn their UCAT, personal statement and interview prep into offers from Edinburgh and other UK medicine schools.