Southampton Medical School


University of Southampton School of Medicine is a medical school in England. It is part of the University of Southampton with a site at Southampton General Hospital, offering 5 Medicine courses, all leading to the award of Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery. Graduates of the BM5/BM6/BM programme are also awarded an integrated BMedSc degree. Prior to 2013, the Bachelor of Medicine degree was awarded.
Under 2017 Complete University Guide Rankings, Southampton Medical School ranked 22nd in all United Kingdom Medical Schools The 2017 Guardian University league tables placed Southampton 9th out of all medical schools in the UK.

History

The school was formed following the recommendations of the Royal Commission on Medical Education ; their report, popularly known as the Todd Report, was issued in 1968. The Commission estimated that by 1994, the United Kingdom would need to train more than 4500 doctors a year and was of the opinion 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, Leicester and Southampton. University of Southampton School of Medicine was opened in 1971, with 40 students enrolling. Southampton pioneered the integration of patient contact into the early years of the medical curriculum, something which was very unusual when the medical school opened.
As of 2014 entrance for the BM5 course, there is a minimum requirement of AAA at A level, including chemistry and biology plus either grade A at AS Level in a subject not studied at A2 or grade A in the Extended Project Qualification. General studies and critical thinking are not accepted. Subjects with material that overlaps may not be offered in combination at A level.
The UKCAT is also considered. The following shows the minimum score attained for those who were invited for interview:
The four undergraduate medical degree programmes on offer at the University of Southampton are:
Intakes for 2016 were 202; 40; 30; 24. Applicants are required to sit the UKCAT admission test. The medical school interviews potential candidates as part of its selection process.
The BM5/BM & BM6 courses intercalate a Bachelor of Medical Sciences degree as a core component of the five or six-year course, similar to the BMedSci intercalated degree at the University of Nottingham. The intercalated degree sees students undertaking a laboratory-based or clinical research project as an integral part of the course.
A standard optional year-long intercalated degree, awarded as a Masters in Medical Sciences degree, is also on offer which allows students to integrate modules from across the university to complete an in-depth multidisciplinary research project.

Facilities

The medical school is based at the Life Sciences building on Highfield Campus, University of Southampton and the South Academic Block at Southampton General Hospital.

Research

The Complementary & Integrated Medicine Research Unit is a research group based at Southampton University School of Medicine, operating within the Department of Primary Medical Care. The unit was established by George Lewith in 1995 with core funding from the Maurice Laing Foundation. One in ten of the UK population use complementary medicine each year and approximately 50% are lifetime users. The unit has therefore focused some of its research on how people use CAM. and looks at methodology in Cam research.

MedSoc

Owing to a large medical student body of over 1400 members, the University of Southampton Students' Union grants BM4, BM5, BM and BM6 students parallel membership to MedSoc, a semi-autonomous society within SUSU which organises events and activities tailored around the course and represents the student body to the medical school via a system of elected representatives. Over 40 individual societies ranging from academics and the arts, to sports, whose membership is available exclusively to medical students is also administered under the MedSoc umbrella.

Sport

Many sports teams are established under the MedSoc umbrella, including rugby, football, tennis, cricket, and netball. The Medical School is very well known for the success of its football team, The Roosters, which compete both intramurally and within the British Universities & Colleges Sport league. Its rugby team won NAMS titles in 2013 and 2016. and the Badgers basketball team which won NAMs in 2016.

Notable alumni