Routes into Graduate Medicine/UK

Consonata

I was looking at my options for getting into a medicine degree. I'm a 6th year student and I was thinking if I didn't get the points needed could I do a Science degree in say UCD then apply and do a Grad. Entry course of 4 years in the UK.

I was considering doing the GEM course in UCD but the fees seem ridiculous there. Around 15k in UCD vs. 7-9k in England. Anybody have any experience of this, or know people who went that route.

Anita Blow

The UK costs 9000 which is ~11,500 euro. As per recent changes to the intern system, there is no guaranteed place for an intern spot in Ireland if you study abroad. There's very few, if any spots available for non-EU students or EU students who studied abroad.

Bio90

Consonata wrote: »

I was looking at my options for getting into a medicine degree. I'm a 6th year student and I was thinking if I didn't get the points needed could I do a Science degree in say UCD then apply and do a Grad. Entry course of 4 years in the UK.

I was considering doing the GEM course in UCD but the fees seem ridiculous there. Around 15k in UCD vs. 7-9k in England. Anybody have any experience of this, or know people who went that route.

Hi, I've been accepted into the University of Nottingham's GEM programme for this September so I have experience of this up to a certain point.

My first piece of advice is to do everything you can to study medicine right out of college, even if it means repeating your leaving cert at a private institute. The money and time saved is invaluable so do everything in your power to get those points. 1 year spent repeating your leaving cert is absolutely nothing in the long run.
Additionally, there's a few problems looming over going to the UK for GEM - the Brexit vote this month and issues being brought up regarding GMC registration for GEMs (4-year medical degrees could fail to meet minimum training periods). There's talk that GEM could be wrapped up altogether in the UK in the next two years.

However, if you're 100% set on going this route, it is very promising in comparison to Irish GEM courses when comparing fees. Yes it's £9k per year but the NHS pay around £3,500 of that from years 2-4. Student Finance England guarantee a loan to cover the remaining (roughly) £5,500. So the only fees you pay up front are the ~£3,500 for first year. So all in all, the money you owe for fees at the end is around £22k (a lot of UK students already have ~£25k of debt from their undergrad) with very friendly conditions and interest.

Competition is incredibly fierce however, much more so than for the traditional route. UK GEM courses have higher GAMSAT cut-off points than in Ireland and experience working in care environments is an absolute necessity (with almost 18 months experience working in a hospital I was given a score of 4/5 for experience - with 5 being worst and 1 being the best!!!). Interviews are tough too. You could have a bad day and suddenly a year's worth of application is down the drain. I've spoken to a good few UK students who applied to Ireland so they could avoid the UK process.

Although you (currently) would qualify for the NHS bursary and SFE loan, we're not eligible for any grants or living expense loans so if you don't have a rich family behind you, get saving.

In regards to choosing an undergrad course purely in preparation for UK GEM, I would try to get a 3 year course. I'm not sure if there's any 3 year science courses in Ireland though. Academically, there's not really a particular area of science that will prepare you for medicine effectively, it's a different perspective largely.


All in all I've probably made the whole thing sound horrendous but I would just emphasize doing everything you can in your power to get the points for undergrad medicine right now. The number of applicants per place for undergrad medicine ranges from 8 to 15 applicants for every spot whereas GEM courses have around 60 applicants per spot. Good Luck!