Medicine and Surgery
Medicine and surgery is the professional degree that prepares graduates to practise as doctors, developing the scientific knowledge, clinical skills, and professional values needed to diagnose and treat illness, manage medical emergencies, and care for patients across the full range of clinical settings. It is one of the most demanding and rewarding of all degrees, and one of the longest: the commitment to medicine is a commitment not just to five years of undergraduate study but to a lifetime of learning, professional development, and patient-centred practice.
The five-year full-time Medicine and Surgery programme at the University of Plymouth develops the foundational skills required for clinical practice alongside the scientific knowledge that underpins them. From the outset, you will learn to take a medical history and explore how clinical information is shared with other members of the clinical team. You will develop basic clinical examination techniques and clinical procedures in simulated environments before applying them in real clinical settings, and you will learn basic life support and the algorithms for managing clinical emergencies.
The programme also develops the foundational professional skills that medicine demands, including empathic and compassionate communication, personal organisation, reflective practice, and self-awareness, recognising that being an effective doctor requires not only clinical knowledge but the emotional intelligence and professional character to apply it well for every patient.
With a typical entry tariff of 168 points, the programme requires strong academic credentials and is highly competitive. Graduates complete the degree with a primary medical qualification and proceed to the Foundation Programme, the two-year postgraduate training that all newly qualified doctors in the UK undertake before progressing into specialty or general practice training. Medicine offers one of the broadest ranges of career pathways of any profession, from general practice and hospital medicine to research, public health, and medical leadership.