MB/PhD – Course Content

The clinical course is based in Cambridge, but students will also study at several Regional Partner NHS Trust hospitals and in general practices throughout the East of England, to take advantage of the different educational opportunities which they can offer. At the beginning of each year of the course, each student receives a detailed personal schedule which shows the length and locations of their placements.

Students attend Year 4 of the Standard Clinical Course for one year, culminating in a laboratory-based Student Selected Component and the Final MB Part 1 examinations. They then take up their full-time research studentships. After three years of research, students resume clinical studies for a final two years.

The teaching of medicine at the University of Cambridge dates back to 1540 when Henry VIII endowed the University’s first Professorship of Physic, Dr John Blyth.

However, for more than 300 years, successive incumbents of the Regius Chair appeared to look upon their positions as a means to an end, enabling them to do their own work without the inconvenience of having to teach students. Between the appointment of Dr Blyth in 1540 until the middle of the 19th century, only one or two medical students were registered each year, with the average number of undergraduates taking the medical course never totalling more than four.