Gateway to Medicine

Gateway to Medicine is a widening participation route into medical study designed for students who have the genuine potential to become doctors but who, for reasons related to their background or circumstances, did not achieve the standard academic entry criteria for direct entry to a five-year medicine programme. Medicine is one of the most demanding and most rewarding professions a person can enter, and the Gateway programme exists on the conviction that the talent and commitment needed to become an excellent doctor is not confined to those who arrive at eighteen with a particular combination of examination grades.

At the University of Bristol this six-year programme adds a foundation year before the standard five years of medical study, providing the scientific and academic preparation needed to succeed in a medical degree. The programme is specifically for UK students who meet Bristol's widening participation criteria, reflecting the university's commitment to recruiting students with the right qualities for medicine from the widest possible range of backgrounds. The foundation year develops the biological and chemical sciences, study skills, and academic confidence needed for the rigours of the medical curriculum.

The subsequent five years follow the same medical training as the standard programme, covering the scientific foundations of medicine and the clinical training needed to practise as a doctor, with exposure to patients and clinical environments from early in the course.

Graduates of Gateway to Medicine, like all Bristol medical graduates, enter the NHS foundation programme before proceeding to specialty or general practice training. The range of eventual medical careers is vast, encompassing all the clinical specialties from emergency medicine and surgery to psychiatry, paediatrics, oncology, and general practice, as well as academic medicine, global health, public health, and medical education. The degree is a qualifying medical degree, and Gateway graduates have the same professional standing and opportunities as their peers who entered through the standard route.