Intercalated Degree

In common with many other Universities, Aberdeen offers undergraduate medical students the opportunity to undertake an intercalated Honours Bachelor of Sciences degree in Medical Sciences. This programme lasts for one year and students usually commence the programme at the beginning of year 4. Students may also undertake the intercalated degree between 4th and 5th year.

The degree programme consists of interlocking taught courses specifically tailored to medical students, providing structured teaching and building up to a detailed self-directed learning project. This is followed by an extended individual 20 week research project, with projects available in a range of departments and disciplines. The programme aims to give students the opportunity to study in greater depth an area of biomedical or clinical science. At the end of the programme students will be able to undertake and critically evaluate research and understand basic principles of research methodology.

A recent innovation is the opportunity to take the intercalated degree in Medical Humanities, a unique opportunity for students whose interest has been stimulated by the Humanities SSC in third year.

Approximately 40 places are available every year for intercalated students. 

To hear what past students think about undertaking this degree, click on this link: Intercalating Students' Experiences

Degree Structure

Interlocking Taught Courses (September-December)

Foundations of Medical Research

  • Computing, information systems, bioinformatics and statistics
  • Communication, writing for research and presentation skills
  • Ethics and teamworking
  • Model systems
  • Introductions to epidemiology and genetics

Health Services Research

  • Quantitative and qualitative research, surveys and health economics
  • Systematic reviews and meta-analysis 
  • Intervention studies
  • Implementing research findings

Laboratory Based Research

  • Cell biology
  • Cell growth and cell death
  • Signalling
  • Regulation of genes

Advanced Principles of Medical Research

  • Epidemiology- study design, occurrence and association, bias and confounding
  • Integrated disease process self directed group project

Research Project (December-May)

Aims

The intercalated degrees provide in-depth study of selected biomedical technologies, health services research, and biomedical, and social sciences. They are aimed at those medical students wishing to undertake a year of research-orientated study.

Students will develop:

  • In-depth knowledge of defined areas of the science that underpins modern medicine
  • Skills of critical evaluation in relation to relevant biomedical literature and data
  • The ability to communicate scientific information in a variety of formats
  • Research skills enabling design, execution, interpretation and reporting of experiments in an area of biomedical science.

Will an Intercalated Degree help me in the future?

There has been a lot of research which has shown that doctors who have intercalated degrees generally do better in their careers than those who do not have an intercalated degree. Courses leading to an intercalated degree offer students an excellent opportunity to think critically about, and to study more deeply, the scientific basis of medical science. In addition, you will undertake an extended research project supervised which will give you the chance to experience the excitements and the difficulties of research. This provides a hands-on appreciation of research techniques. Research training and experience as an undergraduate has been shown to have a substantial positive influence on career development and is linked to better research performance many years later.

In a recent survey 78% of the students polled found their intercalated studies useful in the rest of their undergraduate course. Key skills such as critical appraisal skills are likely to lead to an increased understanding of evidence based medicine, with balanced approaches to clinical decision making.

Will an Intercalated Degree help me get a job?

Competition for foundation jobs is increasing and anything 'extra' which makes a student stand out from his/her peers is bound to help in the job market. Students may not be fully aware of the career benefits of having papers published in journals, having research experience, and developing the ability to critically analyse the literature.

See also Special Features - Intercalated degree options