Bachelor of Medical Sciences

A Bachelor of Medical Science (BMedSci, BMedSc, BMSc, BSci(Med)) or Bachelor of Medical Sciences is an undergraduate academic degree awarded for completed courses that generally last for 2–4 years. Acceleration modes are offered for students who decide to fast-track the duration of a relevant degree or pathway to graduate medical training (Doctor of Medicine) earlier, as opposed to completing a typical undergraduate degree which lasts 3–5 years.

Medical science students learn in depth about the human body; developing skills and knowledge on how the human body functions and how it reacts to disease and the drugs that are used to treat disease. It is possible for students to take an additional year that involves research that allows them to be conferred honours (BMedSc(Hons)) but this usually requires a set GPA. Graduates may enter a diverse range of roles including graduate-entry clinical medicine, academic research, pharmaceuticals and broader consulting roles.

Australia

In Australia, the Bachelor of Medical Science (BMedSc) degree is offered by Griffith University,^[1] University of New South Wales,^[2] University of Sydney,^[3] Monash University,^[4] Australian National University,^[5] University of Western Sydney,^[6] University of Newcastle,^[7] Flinders University,^[8] Charles Sturt University, ^[9] Macquarie University ^[10] and Central Queensland University.^[11]

Canada

At Western University, BMSc is a four-year degree differentiated from a BSc because it is offered in part by the university's faculty of medicine and due to the medical sciences orientation of the concentrations offered.^[12]

Republic of Ireland

The doctor of medicine (MD) degree is not an actual doctorate degree (sometimes termed a research-level doctorate), but rather a first professional degree, which is distinct because they do not require (though may involve) the creation of original research in the form of a thesis. The Republic of Ireland, like many current and former Commonwealth of Nations members use an undergraduate medical education system, whereby students go from high school to medical school and do not earn a baccalaureate degree. This is notably distinct from the United States and Canada, where medicine is a graduate-level study, and applicants to medical school must have first completed undergraduate education and obtained the equivalent of a bachelor's degree.

Some Irish medical schools operate 'graduate-entry medicine' programs which operate similarly to US medical schools, where medicine is taught as a graduate study, and applicants must have completed undergraduate education first. Several of these schools, such as University College Cork grant the BMedSc degree en route to the MB, BCh, BAO degree, which the first professional degree in medicine in Ireland, equivalent to the American MD and the British MB, BCh or MBBS

Several Irish graduate-entry medical schools (those who accept students who have already earned an undergraduate degree, the same process as medical doctor education in the United States) grant the BMedSc degree following the clinical medicine component of the course en route to the MB, BCh, BAO degree.

United Kingdom

In the United Kingdom, the Bachelor of Medical Science degree can be awarded in three situations; firstly as a standalone 3 year qualification, secondly, as a consequence of taking an extra year during a medical or dental course (termed intercalating), or thirdly as a standard part of a medical degree without any additional years of study. Its value is equal to that of a Bachelor of Science (B.Sc.) degree, which is also awarded in the first two circumstances mentioned above. In the third situation, the value of a Bachelor of Medical Science degree is lessened, at least according to the British body which manages first jobs for new medical graduates, as an additional year of study is not undertaken.^[13] Regardless of the way in which this degree is obtained, a research project typically forms a large component of the degree as well as formal teaching in human biology.

Bachelor of Medical Science degrees are awarded as a standalone 3-year course by the University of Birmingham,^[14] the University of Sheffield,^[15] Bangor University,^[16] Oxford Brookes University^[17] and De Montfort University.^[18] Medical schools which award an intercalated Bachelor of Medical Science after an additional year of study are Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry,^[19] the University of Birmingham,^[20] the University of Dundee,^[21] the University of Edinburgh ^[22] the University of Aberdeen, and the University of Sheffield.^[23] The universities of Nottingham^[24] and Southampton^[25] award the degree as a standard part of their undergraduate medicine courses without an additional year of study.

References

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