Congratulations and Welcome to Lancaster Medical School

two students studying a heart model

What's next?

Everything you need to know before you arrive at Lancaster Medical School.

Workplace Health Assessment

You should now complete the Workplace Health Assessment. Learn more below.

Prepare for Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) Checking

Please review the guidance for completing your DBS check below.

Qualification Certificates

During Welcome Week, we will ask to see your certificates for all qualifications that we cannot confirm through UCAS. Learn more below.

Next steps Accordion

Students in front of Health Innovation One

Welcome Week

Arrivals Weekend will take place on 30th September and 1st October 2023. Your college will be in touch about your move in date.

Welcome Week will begin on 2nd October and will include a number of compulsory sessions delivered by Lancaster Medical School. These sessions will introduce you to the course, our staff, and other Medical students.

A formal timetable of sessions will be posted to this page as we approach Welcome Week. Please ensure you check your emails regularly, as we will be sending out more information before your arrival. These emails often arrive into a junk or spam inbox, so make sure to check these too.

Your college will also be hosting a timetable of events throughout Welcome Week, to help you settle into student life and get to know the campus.

Get in touch if you have any further questions

You can use the form below, or email us at ugamedicine@lancaster.ac.uk.

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Some current students share their stories of starting at Lancaster Medical School.

Nellie

What was going through your mind before coming to Lancaster University?

I suppose I was panicky at first: the Medicine and Surgery course jumps straight in but you know the University is there to support you. Our first lecture was with student support so anyone who needed help knew how to access it straight away. Other courses didn’t have as much contact time while we had classes straight away in Fresher’s Week. So that set the tone of lots of work, but the Medical School has been very good at helping us with it.

What’s it like experiencing all these new things for the first time?

It was both exciting and daunting! I remember going into my first lecture, the energy was electric; everyone was ecstatic to start something new. None of us had ever worked like that before, it was completely different. They had all these mannikins and scenarios to work out, I felt like a real life doctor with real problems to solve, I loved it.

Was it a challenge learning that way?

There was a huge shift in my mindset, it was a completely different style to get used to but our lecturers were the best and the anatomy lab too helped us so much! The PBL (problem-based learning) curriculum is case-based. You get given a scenario and you set your own objectives then you go away and learn those with the resources the university provides. So, you go away and learn it the way you want and then you come back for a feedback session. It’s essentially based around these seminars but there’s a huge emphasis on independent learning.

How does that work for assessments?

PBL isn’t assessed. That’s the most important thing to know. You’re allocated into groups, and you spend a lot of time together you end up getting very close. You all work on a case and present your findings to your tutor. The independent learning side of things was tricky, but we worked together and collaborated. You can talk to your friends about things and talk through your notes and stuff. Some people find it stressful, but you have to see them as part of your learning rather than an assessment. By the end of the first 5/6 months we all learned to help each other out it became a group discussion.

What's the biggest change you've noticed since starting University?

I think I learned to listen more, not only to others but also to myself. I stopped seeing everything as a deadline or an assessment and more of a learning experience. That was the biggest change. Everyone is here for a reason and wants to do their best, so reaching out and sharing becomes its own experience.

Nellie

Shiv

What were your greatest challenges in your transition to university?

I looked at a lot of traditional courses, preclinical, heavily content and lecture based that made me apprehensive. I chose Lancaster because of PBL (problem-based learning) and the early clinical placements. I wanted that degree of self-study and here you’re on placement from second year. It brings it all to life and really worked out the best for me; I enjoy that style of learning. Even in first year when I did communication skills, that was a taste of what clinical placement is like, and so I really felt fully prepared for what to expect in second year.

What surprised you the most about the application process?

I applied to Lancaster through UCAS extra, and because of covid my first interview was on Teams. It was the first medical interview done anywhere in the country on Teams so nothing I'd read really prepared me for how that would work.

What's the biggest change between school and university?

Well, it’s not like school. At school you’re used to the teacher leading everything, but in PBL it’s student driven. The tutor is there for support but only if you need it. It’s a lot better than school because everyone’s there for a reason, everyone chose to do this degree. The groups are really driven to do better! After the first couple modules it became very natural. I don’t think I’d be able to learn any other way now. I wouldn’t want to sit through hours and hours of lectures a week for three years.

If you could tell yourself anything about PBL, what would it be?

Just make the most of it and enjoy it. It’s so worth making the most of the time you have. You can collaborate and fill in each other’s gaps, you might deep dive into problem x but not a lot into y, but the person next to you might have done the opposite, so it’s exciting to share that. There’s definitely some competitiveness too, everyone’s trying to do their best, we all wanted to show the tutor how much we cared.

Shiv

Isra

Can you tell us about coming to Lancaster University?

I applied for A100, the five-year MBChB Medicine and Surgery course and got a conditional offer but on results day my grades were one grade lower then my predicted. I was heart-broken and stressed out. However, on the same day I got an email from Lancaster saying they were sorry I’d missed my predicted grades by one grade, but that they could offer me a place on the Gateway course instead! I met these contextual criteria because my parents had never been to university, so I’d be the first in my family. I accepted it on UCAS as soon as I could, and while I knew it would be hard, I really wanted to do it.

How did you find the Gateway Year?

I loved my Gateway Year, and I would do it again. It was a great transition into university. Moving from A levels to Uni in general is a really difficult time: I was sad to be moving because I have a younger brother and I missed him every day, but because the Gateway Year is such a small cohort (there were 15 of us), we got really close and I made some amazing friends. We’d see each other every day, we’d be in a Biomed lecture of 300 students, but we’d all be sitting together in a row. Nicola our programme head was so lovely – she helped us transition in. Throughout the year we got assessed every five weeks, it was intense, but looking back even that was good because it took a lot of pressure off the final exam.

Was there anything about university that scared you?

I find everything so exciting so I didn’t find anything scary at all. I was just so excited to be here and to make new friends. Then when I was in a lab or in the lectures, I’d take pictures and send them to my parents and be like ‘’look, it’s me in a lab coat!’’ I found it so affirming.

How was your transition from the Gateway Year to year one of the MBChB?

There were challenges but I ended up with a great medic parent, a peer mentor during my first year. It’s like a professional relationship, we have to meet up with them, we build a relationship with them, and they helped me so much. I wanted to pay that back, and so I became a peer mentor for a Gateway student as well.

If you could give advice to your younger self, what would you say?

I would say put yourself out more, but I already did, I really put myself out there I did salsa, netball and chess, and I don’t even like chess! I also joined some amazing societies that helped me feel like a real medical student.

Isra