The St Andrews Medicine courseWhat you actually study, and where you will be
Photo: Daytrick / Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 4.0 · cropped
Photo: Daytrick · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Photo: Stanley Howe · CC BY-SA 2.0 · Photo: Pwstauk · CC BY-SA 4.0
The St Andrews medicine course at a glance
The one UK course where you do not graduate from the university you applied to. Three years at St Andrews earn a BSc (Hons) in Medicine; you then transfer to a partner medical school for three clinical years and take their degree. Anatomy is taught by cadaveric dissection.
How St Andrews teaches medicine
Lectures, laboratory practicals, small-group tutorials, clinical placements, audio-visual systems for clinical-skills feedback, computer-based resources and research projects.
What that means day to day
When you first meet patients
Community-based placements in year 1, primary care attachments in year 2, and secondary care/hospital attachments in year 3.
Anatomy at St Andrews
Dissection. Cadaveric dissection, with clinical imaging integration and radiology coverage.
Year by year at St Andrews
Where you will actually be at St Andrews
Placement geography is the part of a medicine course that changes your life most and appears in prospectuses least. Here is what St Andrews publishes.
Students transfer for the clinical years via a Scotland route (Aberdeen, Dundee, Edinburgh, Glasgow), an England route (Manchester, London), or Manchester for overseas students.
Worth knowing about St Andrews
- You graduate with a BSc Honours before you begin clinical training.
Applying to St Andrews?
How to get into St Andrews
Entry requirements, UCAT, personal statement and interview, step by step.
Open the guide →St Andrews UCAT cut-offs and offers
UCAT cut-offs, A-level offers, interview format and decision dates.
See the requirements →Compare St Andrews with other schools
Put the teaching style, anatomy teaching and placements next to another school.
Open the comparison →Prepare for the St Andrews interview
Format breakdown, school-specific sample questions and prep tips from tutors who interviewed here.
Read the guide →Where this St Andrews course profile came from
Every course detail on this page was taken from University of St Andrews's own course page, read on 2026-09-11.
Primary source: University of St Andrews — 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 St Andrews?
We have helped hundreds of applicants turn their UCAT, personal statement and interview prep into offers from St Andrews and other UK medicine schools.