Medicine, Medical Sciences and Nutrition

Your first class will be your School level induction. During the welcome and induction event, there will be various sessions where you will find out how teaching and assessment works here in Aberdeen, as well as how you can get help if you need it during your studies. 

This will be a great place to meet fellow students and teaching staff before teaching begins. 

Alongside the main School induction session, you will also have a meeting for your specific degree programme. Before you arrive, you can find details of the first meeting of your degree programme in the welcome meeting timetable. Meetings for degree programmes take place on various days around the main induction session. 

Your School Induction will not be on your timetable, so please make sure to check the date, time and location and add this to your calendar.

Main School Induction Session

Friday 23 January 2026, 10.00am, Level 7, The Institute of Medical Sciences (IMS), Foresterhill

• Postgraduate Teaching Academic Lead: Professor Amudha Poobalan
  PGT teaching support: pgt-mmsn@abdn.ac.uk

Reading lists for individual courses will be available through MyAberdeen. However, many of our PGT courses use research papers to support teaching and may not use a textbook.

You also have the opportunity to brush up your study skills and learn more about the University at our award-winning Toolkit website.

For our PGT courses, written assessments will be submitted and marked via MyAberdeen.

Courses will not be assessed by formal exams on campus in the first half session unless you are taking a course for which a formal exam is required by a professional body. Assessments may include essays, online exercises, presentations and timed assessments online.

This will vary from course to course, and there will be specific details in every course guide at the start of term.

ASSESSMENT

For our PGT courses, written assessments will be submitted and marked via MyAberdeen. Some courses may be assessed by formal exams on campus. You will be informed if this applies to your course(s). Assessments may include essays, online exercises, presentations and timed assessments online. This will vary from course to course, and there will be specific details in every course overview at the start of term.

PRACTICALS, FIELDWORK AND PLACEMENTS

Some of our courses involve practicals or placements. Most practicals will take place in the Science Teaching Hub on the Old Aberdeen campus. You will be asked to purchase a lab coat and safety glasses before attending your first class.

The majority of laboratory-based research projects take place in research labs in the Institute of Medical Sciences and the Rowett Institute.

In the past some of our research projects have involved colleagues in the National Health Service (NHS). Due to ongoing NHS issues, there may be reduced numbers of projects offered by NHS staff in this academic year.

Some of our programmes offer placements. These may be based on-campus, locally, working with a distanced partner or occasionally may involve a placement outside Aberdeen.

We are looking forward to welcoming you to campus to start your research journey with us. As a Postgraduate Research student you will have the opportunity to attend a University wide induction in addition to your school induction.

The University of Aberdeen Orientation programme has been designed to take you through all of the essential information you will need for your student life. You can get started now by working through the interactive modules.

There are a series of modules that you can work through before you arrive. Once you have registered you can access the remaining modules and complete your mandatory training programme through your bespoke PGR training platform on our virtual learning environment.

There will be a school welcome event for Postgraduate Research students. This will provide an opportunity to meet Postgraduate coordinators and PhD supervisors. There will also be time to answer any questions you may have. Further details regarding the welcome event will follow in due course.

As a PGR student you may have the opportunity to audit Master's courses to augment your research training. Please discuss this with your supervisor and check out the postgraduate taught pages above.

The PGR College also offers a comprehensive training programme to support your research journey.

The PGR College training and development programme offers academic, professional, and personal development through a number of training workshops, resources and opportunities, all intended to support the PGR community at the University of Aberdeen.