The Queen's University Belfast (QUB) Medicine courseWhat you actually study, and where you will be
Photo: Nick Birse · CC BY-SA 4.0 · cropped
Photo: Nick Birse · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Photo: Mx. Granger · CC0 · Photo: Joseph Mischyshyn · CC BY-SA 2.0
The Queen's University Belfast (QUB) medicine course at a glance
Two pre-clinical years with afternoon anatomy dissection, then three clinical years spread across Northern Ireland's five health and social care trusts. Every student does at least two placements in Belfast and at least two elsewhere in Northern Ireland.
How Queen's University Belfast (QUB) teaches medicine
The first two years are pre-clinical, learning mostly through lectures and tutorials on campus. Mornings are largely lectures; afternoons are anatomy dissection sessions, tutorials or OSCEs. By third year almost all teaching is in the clinical setting.
What that means day to day
When you first meet patients
Patient contact is prioritised from the beginning — the Family Attachment Scheme in year 1 and the General Practice Experience in year 2. Hospital and general-practice placements begin in year 3.
Anatomy at Queen's University Belfast (QUB)
Dissection. Afternoon anatomy dissection sessions run through the pre-clinical years.
Year by year at Queen's University Belfast (QUB)
Where you will actually be at Queen's University Belfast (QUB)
Placement geography is the part of a medicine course that changes your life most and appears in prospectuses least. Here is what Queen's University Belfast (QUB) publishes.
Students are assigned to one or two of the five trusts, and over 150 general practices take students. During years 3–5 every student undertakes at least two clinical placements within Belfast and at least two elsewhere in Northern Ireland.
- Belfast Health and Social Care Trust
- Northern Health and Social Care Trust
- South Eastern Health and Social Care Trust
- Southern Health and Social Care Trust
- Western Health and Social Care Trust
Applying to Queen's University Belfast (QUB)?
How to get into Queen's University Belfast (QUB)
Entry requirements, UCAT, personal statement and interview, step by step.
Open the guide →Queen's University Belfast (QUB) UCAT cut-offs and offers
UCAT cut-offs, A-level offers, interview format and decision dates.
See the requirements →Compare Queen's University Belfast (QUB) with other schools
Put the teaching style, anatomy teaching and placements next to another school.
Open the comparison →Prepare for the Queen's University Belfast (QUB) interview
Format breakdown, school-specific sample questions and prep tips from tutors who interviewed here.
Read the guide →Where this Queen's University Belfast (QUB) course profile came from
Queen's University Belfast's course page could not be read directly by our tooling — it either sits behind a bot wall or renders in the browser — so this page was built from the university's own published course and school pages, checked on 2026-09-11. Confirm the detail against the official page before you rely on it.
Primary source: Queen's University Belfast — 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 Queen's University Belfast (QUB)?
We have helped hundreds of applicants turn their UCAT, personal statement and interview prep into offers from Queen's University Belfast (QUB) and other UK medicine schools.