MSci Integrated Natural Sciences

Our primary goal with this innovative course is to strengthen you as a scientist, by training you across disciplines. Using a blend of classroom instruction, team-based problem solving (problem-sets), team-based laboratory work and individual study, we will teach you to think creatively and quantitatively, formulate unsolved problems, and work to create effective solutions by drawing freely on the methods and perspectives of different scientific disciplines.

Scientists ask questions about how the world works – especially the natural world – and then work to answer those questions using cycles of conjecture and experiment. Human curiosity leads us to ask basic questions. What is life? What distinguishes the living from the non-living? How do cells work? What causes disease?

MSci Integrated Science aims to equip you to pose and answer scientific questions by drawing freely on the methods and mindsets of mathematics, physics, biology, chemistry and computation. By combining the strengths of Warwick’s Medical School (WMS) and the School of Life Sciences (SLS), this new course offers you unique opportunities to develop yourself as a scientist.

Why study Health and Medical Sciences at Warwick?

• Driven by active researchers.
• Supports students to conduct original research into unsolved scientific problems from day one.
• “Anti-disciplinary” – incorporates principles from biology, chemistry, physics, mathematics and computing, and teaches students to move confidently across disciplinary boundaries.
• Equips students with practical experimental skills and analytical thinking skills needed to ‘do’ science.
• Blends classes, team-based problem solving, original lab-based research and individual study.
• Incorporates MATLAB and Python e-labs, equipping students with essential computer coding skills.

Welcome to Warwick Medical School. We are a modern Medical School, based in one of the leading Universities in the UK.

We have some of the brightest minds here, and we have some outstanding facilities, for both research and learning and teaching. It is a great place to work or study. It also happens to be a nice part of the country to live in, while still only a short journey away from major cities like Birmingham or London.

Our accelerated four-year Graduate Entry MB ChB programme has been designed for an all-graduate cohort. This means your future classmates are likely to be highly motivated men and women bringing their own diverse personal backgrounds and life experiences to enrich your time here. Our course has been specially designed to fit with and appeal to graduates who have a mature attitude to learning and can benefit from a research-rich environment such as the University of Warwick.

We also have some outstanding Postgraduate Taught programmes in a number of specialities. These courses enable graduates and clinicians to develop both new and existing skills and enhance subject-specific knowledge that will allow them to progress within their chosen career path and ultimately make a difference to patients and the wider public.

Our research is excellent due to the high calibre of researchers we have working here with access to first-class infrastructure. We have a number of partnerships with NHS organisations and industries around the West Midlands and internationally. Our endeavours in biomedical research are focussed on outstanding niche programmes that benefit from Warwick’s research environment and our partnerships. I encourage you to peruse the website and look at some of these programmes.

Our Health Sciences research effort is larger. It incorporates one of the largest Clinical Trials Units in the country, with extensive health economics and statistics expertise that supports multi-centre trials being carried out both nationally and internationally. Once again, this website will give insight into the groundbreaking and impactful work we are doing in these areas.

WMS is supported and enhanced by over a dozen partnerships with NHS organisations, both in the Coventry and Warwickshire area and beyond. For example, if you are a student, your learning may be delivered in partnership with one or more of the NHS Trusts based around us. With access to a diverse patient population, you will understand why this is so important for education and research.

We are also working in partnership to strategically develop clinical research, not only to directly benefit patients but also for training tomorrow’s researchers. For example, TOMMYs Centre for Miscarriage Research, established in partnership with University Hospital Coventry and Warwickshire translates research to patient benefit and also helps train research staff. We have a number of practising clinicians who act as teachers and collaborators in research and many of them are leading exponents of their particular clinical discipline. Once again, I encourage you to look through our website so you can see some of the work our Clinical Faculty do.

Our Mission

• To be a leading medical school in the UK, internationally renowned for the high quality and relevance of our education programmes and for the excellence and significance of our research.

Our Values

• Our activities are focussed on maintaining and improving health both within the UK and internationally.
• The School is founded on the principle of collaboration with a variety of partners, we are outward-looking and will continue to seek partners with whom we can work to the ultimate benefit of patients.
• We strive for excellence in all that we do, seeking to encourage, support and deliver high-quality research and teaching which is at the cutting edge internationally.
• We are committed to the highest standards of honesty, integrity, openness and professionalism in all of our activities.
• We engage with the public, respecting and valuing the diversity of perspectives and we seek to disseminate our knowledge and research findings to enhance the quality of life of the public.
• We are a dynamic and enterprising organisation, we are not constrained by traditional departmental, speciality or professional boundaries and we seek to develop new paradigms by working together across disciplines.
• Our culture is one of informality and friendliness in which all of our staff are valued and treated fairly and with dignity as vital parts of our team.
• We support all our staff by investing in excellent and appropriate development activities to help them increase their potential and achieve their career aspirations.

Our Vision

• We will be a leading UK medical school with an international reputation for its undergraduate, postgraduate and continuing professional development (CPD) programmes. The School will be the UK leader for graduate entry medicine widely renowned for its evidence-based and innovative approach.
• We will be recognised as a world leader in a number of focussed areas of research, we will be renowned for our ability to apply knowledge and research findings across disciplinary boundaries.
• We will be seen as a key partner by the National Health Service (NHS), Government, charitable and commercial organisations for the development of new and innovative national training programmes for staff from all of the healthcare and associated professions, we will have a large dedicated continuing education and development unit to support this area of activity.
• We will be home to at least two substantial externally funded research institutes (for example Cancer Research UK, Wellcome or Medical Research Council) either based on NHS Trust sites or at the Medical School.
• We will employ staff who will provide significant input and leadership for local NHS services. We will be widely regarded as an exemplar for engagement and effective joint working to the benefit of the public, patients and the development of staff.
• We will encourage translational research, knowledge transfer and other aspects of commercial engagement.
• We will have excellent relationships with our alumni and will benefit significantly from their support of our growth and development.
• We will actively participate in the ongoing training and development of our graduates.
• We will be based in first-class facilities providing a home for our research and teaching on the University and Trust campuses.

Our history

Established in 2000, Warwick Medical School (WMS) forms part of the Faculty of Science, Engineering and Medicine at the University of Warwick, one of the UK's top universities.

Home to the UK's largest graduate-entry MB ChB programme, WMS also offers tailored opportunities for professional development across the healthcare sector.

Alongside a range of educational opportunities, WMS has a reputation for research excellence, investigating solutions to significant global health challenges.

Timeline

• 2000 - WMS established as a joint school between Warwick and Leicester Universities.
• The first students to study at WMS arrived in September.
• 2001 - Medical Teaching Centre building opened.
• 2004 - First Dean of Warwick Medical School, Professor Yvonne Carter, appointed.
• 2005 - Warwick Clinical Trials Unit established.
• 2006 - £400 million University Hospital in Coventry opened, housing WMS Clinical Sciences Building.
• 2007 - WMS awarded independent degree-awarding status, marking the end of the School’s formal partnership with Leicester Medical School.
• 2008 - First submission to the Research Assessment Exercise (RAE): 10th in the UK for the quality of Health Services Research.
• 2009 - Opening of the Surgical Training Centre.
• 2009 - Completion of the new Clinical Trials Unit building.
• 2010 - Professor Peter Winstanley appointed Dean.
• 2015 - Professor Sudhesh Kumar appointed Dean as Professor Winstanley takes on the role of Chair of the Faculty of Medicine.
• 2015 - Celebration of the ten year anniversary of the Warwick Clinical Trials Unit.
• 2015 - Fifteen years since WMS opened.
• 2018 - Became part of Warwick's Faculty of Science, Engineering and Medicine

WMS Partnerships

We have close collaborations and partnerships with a number of universities, research organisations and institutions around the world. Some are international university partnerships, enhancing our position as a globally connected University, while others are UK collaborations covering a range of academic disciplines, research and other more specific endeavours.

External Partners

• University Hospital Coventry and Warwickshire
• George Eliot Hospital NHS Trust
• South Warwickshire NHS Trust
• CLAHRC West Midlands
• West Midlands Academic Health Science Network
• Coventry and Rugby GP Alliance
• City of Coventry NHS Healthcare Centre
• Coventry and Warwickshire Partnership Trust
• Public Health England
• Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine
• Monash University
• iheed