Doctors and books

Medical education
Medicine is one of the great vocational disciplines and as a result students come to it with a sense of commitment and purpose not always found in other subject fields. Further, the medical profession has systematized a highly developed and examinable progression through undergraduate and postgraduate syllabuses, which moves the doctor from his first degree to registration and then from generalist to specialist. Thus the tiro medical student comes to university knowing that he is embarking on a course of study which will last upwards of ten years.

The new student will also have a sense of some achievement from simply being accepted by a medical school. There are 31 medical schools offering registrable first degrees, of which 12, including many of the best known, form part of the University of London. The intake of the schools varies between 80 and over 200 each year with a typical minimum entry requirement of three A-levels at 'B' grade in Chemistry, Physics and Biology. In practice there are ten applicants for every available place and this severe competition means that only the very well qualified and well motivated are accepted.