Medical Sciences

Entry requirements

• Applicants should have completed 4 years of bachelor of medicine bachelor of surgery or equivalent or have completed an undergraduate degree in a relevant discipline.
• Interview required.
• A detailed admissions procedure will be forwarded on application.
• IELTS: Score of at least 6.5 or equivalent.

Months of entry

January, September

Course content

Our MRes Medical Sciences is designed to enable intercalating medical students, clinicians and graduates to pursue a research career in key areas of medicine and bioscience in academia, healthcare settings or industry. You’ll receive high-quality transferable skills and specialised training on the scientific method that you will apply onto an original cutting-edge research project.

You will be supported by leading internationally recognised academics, clinicians, surgeons and investigators, becoming an integral part of a research group, within a thriving community of postgraduate research students.

We’ll guide you through a real-life experience in specialist medical and biomedical research settings in a project of your choice which can be custom-tailored to fit your professional aspirations. You’ll advance knowledge and practice and become prepared for independent interdisciplinary real-world research in your area of specialization and more broadly in modern medical sciences, healthcare systems (including the NHS), the biotechnology industry, and regulatory bodies.

The MRes Medical Sciences will get you ready for the ever-changing demands in healthcare and the biotechnology industry in an era of uncertainty due to pressing health threats and societal issues, eg emergent pathogens, pandemics, antimicrobial resistance, non-communicable diseases, chronic illnesses, mental health disorders, or population ageing, and we’ll prepare you for the investigation and innovation leading the study, identification, diagnosis, prevention and/or treatment of human pathology or dysfunction.

You will be able to select or propose a project across the wide ambit of disciplines at the front-line of medicine, surgery, or medical sciences specialties with a technical scope that can encompass, in a project-dependent manner, from bioinformatics and in silico big data analysis, through cellular or molecular technologies, physiology methods or medical imaging, medical devices and nanotechnology, to tools in psychology and qualitative research.

WHY STUDY WITH US

• You’ll effectively be a junior investigator conducting an original research project in the research team of a principal investigator/s, thus becoming an essential member of the School of Medicine research endeavour.
• You’ll undertake relevant collaborative and interdisciplinary cutting-edge research on a topic of your choice aligned with the priorities of governments and NGOs, from basic aspects of health and disease to the global health agenda.
• To enable your progress, success and satisfaction the course is framed within a support network including but not restricted to a supervisory team, a vibrant research community, and experienced student services.

WHAT YOU'LL DO

• You will acquire the foundation of research methods through interactive taught lectures, seminars, workshops, skills sessions, which you can integrate through the undertaking of your research project.
• We place a strong emphasis on personal development, innovation, enterprise and entrepreneurship. You’ll gain advanced transferable skills in critical thinking, independent judgement, self-directed learning, autonomous work, and an insight of the place and process of research.
• In a project-dependent manner there may be opportunities to gain national and international external research experience at other universities, research centre, industry, NHS clinical settings and healthcare facilities.

LEARNING AND ASSESSMENT

The course is made up of two modules. The first (MB4067; 60 credits) focuses on research methods and will equip you with the fundamental general tools and skills you need for medical and biomedical research as well as conceptual and technical specific to your research project. The second (MB4068; 120 credits) will involve you undertaking a cutting-edge research project you will have proposed or selected.

Throughout the course you’ll be supported and assessed by the research supervisor and research team. You’ll engage in lectures, workshops, class discussions and debates, group and individual tutorials, experimental work and student-led seminars. You’ll be expected to undertake extensive independent, self-directed and guided learning as well as learning from working as part of a research team.

The assessment methods we use throughout the course correspond to the skills and outputs that a professional researcher in the medical/biomedical sciences needs to demonstrate. You’ll undertake written assignments, critical appraisal of published works and examinations, data interpretation, technical troubleshooting tests and more.

Your research project will involve completing various assessment pieces, including a research proposal, an statistics assignment, a written test, a laboratory notebook, a written assignment (dissertation) and an oral examination (a viva voce of the dissertation).

INDUSTRY LINKS

The principal investigators in the School and affiliated partners associated with our Medical Sciences, MRes collaborate with a variety of national and international universities, research centres, industry, and partners within the environment of human health, such as East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust (ELHT), North Cumbria University Hospitals NHS Trusts (NCUHT), Blackpool Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, and the World Health Organization (WHO).

OPPORTUNITIES

Graduates of the Medical Sciences, MRes programme will be ideally suited to pursue the academic medicine foundation programme, PhD degrees, and research opportunities in academic or research centres as well as taking on professional roles in the medical and bioscience industries.

FURTHER INFORMATION

For more information, please contact the Course Director:

Dr Jorge Garcia-Lara

Tel. 01772 89 5872

E-mail: jgarcia-lara@uclan.ac.uk