Where will your interview take place?

You can attend your interview from home or arrange to take it at school or college. If you plan to use a school or college setting, check your system permissions in advance - firewalls and safeguarding policies may prevent your use of Microsoft Teams.

Choose a quiet location with a strong Wifi connection. If you're at home, let others know you'll be in an interview and ask them not to disturb you.

What should be in your interview space?

• Your device (ideally a laptop or PC)
• A headset or microphone
• Your photographic ID
• If needed, a drink in a bottle with the label removed or a clear glass

Please remove any notes, books, devices, or items that could help you in an interview from your desks and walls.

Important: There should be no people in the room during your interview. Other devices (such as mobile phones) should be silenced, as to not disturb, and not accessed in the interview unless required due to any technological issues.

Before your interview, it's essential to check that you can use Microsoft Teams without issues. This is essential to avoid technical problems on the day.

Please complete the following checks in the environment and on the device you will conduct your interview from:

• Have the latest version of MS Teams downloaded.
• Check your microphone and camera are working.
• Ensure your background is visible and not blurred.
• Check you can view the chat.
• Check your name is showing correctly.
• Check you can see a shared PowerPoint slide.

More information and support on how to complete each action can be found in the document linked below.

We use the interview to get to know you and gain an understanding of your suitability to study and practice medicine. We understand that interviews can be stressful and so we aim to help our applicants feel as relaxed as possible so they can showcase their experiences and achievements well.

In preparation for your interview, we suggest you read up on aspects of studying medicine in the UK, as well as practice talking to your family and friends about your motivation, experiences, and understanding of medicine as a career.

Although it is tempting to memorise short paragraphs to explain your experiences, please understand that this usually comes across poorly in an interview situation and we're looking to have a conversation with you.

Resources that you might find useful include:

• Lancaster Medical School webpages which give more information about our courses, research and values.
• Medical Schools Council (MSC) guidance on the core values of medical students you can download this document from this webpage. In particular, please read the advice on pages 3 and 4.
• Medical professionalism | Health Careers this introduces professionalism for medical students and doctors and provides links to further information.
• General Medical Council (GMC) guidance for students about professional behaviour, ethics, and responsibilities during medical training and practice.
• The NHS values | Health Careers this introduces the values of the NHS constitution relevant to everyday practice.

These documents should help you to understand what skills, values and attributes we look to assess within our MMI, but you will not be expected to have memorised them.

Initial briefing:

When you join your first Teams meeting room at the start of your interview, you will be greeted by a member of staff and meet other applicants who will be interviewed at the same time as you.

You will watch a short briefing video which explains the interview process, and you have the opportunity to ask any questions before your interview circuit begins.

Once the initial briefing has finished, you will be asked to join your second meeting room link. Here, an interviewer will join you and will ask to check your ID and the room/interview space.

Initial checks:

At the beginning of your circuit, your first interviewer will:

• Check that you can see and hear each other​
• Check your identity: ​
  • Acceptable photo ID – Passport, (Provisional) Driving Licence, College or School ID​
• Check the room you are being interviewed in:
  • Use your camera to show interviewer a 360° sweep of the room and your desk/table​
  • The interviewer may ask you to show them something by holding up to the camera​
  • No-one else is allowed to be in the room with you​
  • You must keep your video and microphone on at all times

Once all applicants and interviewers are ready, your circuit will begin. This includes 6 assessed stations and one break station, each 5 minutes long with a 2-minute break in between. Your assessor will warn you when you have 1-minute remaining in your station. In total, your interview should last between 1 hour 30 minutes to 1 hour 45 minutes.

You should stay in your meeting room for this section of the interview and only return to the briefing room once your final interviewer asks you to do so.

Please abide by the following instructions:

• You must keep your camera and microphone on at all times
• Close all software and applications apart from Microsoft Teams during your interview
• You are not permitted to record your interview
• You are not permitted to use Artificial Intelligence to aid you in your interview
• You are not permitted to search the internet to help you answer the questions
• You should not discuss the content of the interview with anyone - you must accept our confidentiality agreement prior to interview

Probity: Doctors are expected to “be honest and open and act with integrity” at all times (Good Medical Practice). Therefore, probity is taken extremely seriously during the admissions process for our medical degree programme. Applicants suspected of acting dishonestly during their interview, or at any stage of the admissions process, will be investigated according to the Fitness to Practise process outlined in our Admissions Policy. Lancaster Medical School reserves the right to reject any applicant who is found to have been dishonest at any stage of their application.

After the initial checks outlined above, each of the 6 stations assesses different skills, values or attributes

• There will be one or two different assessors at each station
• Assessors can be clinicians, academic staff, students or patient representatives
• Assessors may interrupt you to ask you to clarify a point you are making or prompt you to move onto the next question. This is normal and does not reflect how well you are doing in the station.
• You can ask for the question to be repeated and have time to think about your answer before you begin
• You shouldn't need to write notes at any point during the interview

Breaks

There will be one 5-minute break station during your circuit. During this station a student will join your room.

• This station is not assessed.
• You are allowed to visit the bathroom during your break.
• The student will ask if you want to chat or if you want to be quiet.
• The student will let you know when the break is over and when you can expect your next interviewer to join you.

Once you have completed your Part 2 circuit, you should rejoin your first meeting room link where you will have a debrief, this will include; details such as our offer making schedule, information about studying medicine at Lancaster University, and answer any questions you may have.

After this has finished, you are free to go.

If there are minor technical problems that impact the timing of your MMI stations by a few minutes, it may take longer for your next interviewer to join you than anticipated​. Please be patient; we will be working hard to get the MMI back on track​. Please stay in your personal meeting room, ready to start the next MMI station.

If you encounter problems, please:

• Tell the interviewer or station administrator
• If no one is in the room with you, write in the chat

Depending on the problem, there may not be anything we can do, even if the problem is out of your control.

Please note:

• If you are not available and ready when the station starts, we will not be able to repeat the station for you.
• If your internet connection is disrupted during a station, we will try to extend the length of time you have at the station, if possible.

In the event of major problems:

• We will contact you using the email address on your UCAS application
• You should contact us by email - please reply to the email that includes your MMI schedule
  • ugamedicine@lancaster.ac.uk
  • Call the admissions team on: (+44)1524 594547