Frequently Asked Questions

Yes, Brunel Medical School is awarding 10 scholarships for the MBBS course for 2021/22 entry. 

Each scholarship is worth £30,000 across the duration of the course. Students will be offered £6,000 per year as an annual contribution – or 15% - towards the tuition fee payment. Scholarships will be awarded on merit, scored on:

1) School/college leavers’ grades

2) MBBS interview performance

3) A short medicine-themed essay.

Yes, as a UK medical school, all Brunel Medical School graduates will be eligible to apply to the UK Foundation Programme for Foundation Year (FY) Clinical Training. As an international student, you will need to transfer from a Tier 4 student visa to a Tier 2 visa for postgraduate training.

Yes, you will be able to apply for a Tier 4 visa to remain in the UK, so you can study on the MBBS (subject ​to meeting all other Tier 4 requirements). Typically, there is a limit or a cap on how long you can study in the UK on a Tier 4 visa. In most cases it is five years. However, some courses including medicine are exempt from the five-year cap.

If you would like further information on making a Tier 4 visa to study in the UK, please visit our dedicated visa and immigration webpage.

There are a number of requirements that include academic achievement, English Language competence and the interview process.

1) - A Levels: Grades: AAB, including Biology or Chemistry and a second science or Mathematics

Or

- IB Diploma:  Total score of 33 points, Higher Level 6 and 5 in Chemistry or Biology and a second science or Mathematics

Or

-An equivalent high school leaving certificate.

2) Multiple Mini Interview (MMI) by video or on campus

3) For non-native English speakers:

- English-language:  7.0 IELTS overall and in all sections (we will consider 6.5 in individual sections on a case-by-case basis).

No, you are not required to take  the UCAT or BMAT.

Yes.

• The requirement is a 2.1 or equivalent degree (US 3.3 GPA, 3.0 in Canada, etc) in a subject relevant to Medicine (e.g., Biomedical Sciences, Pharmacology, Life Sciences, etc)
• Graduates start in Year 1 of the 5-year course
• Graduates do not need to take the MCAT or GAMSAT. 

This will depends on your qualifications. Please email international-admissions@brunel.ac.uk

A Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery (MBBS) is a primary medical qualification awarded in the United Kingdom, Ireland and other Commonwealth countries.  It is considered to be an equivalent to a Doctor of Medicine (MD) degree that is awarded in the USA and Canada. 

At this point, our MBBS is open only to students from outside the UK and EU.  We will be discussing with Health Education England and the Office for Students the possibility of offering our Medicine degree to students from the UK and EU in the near future.

Brunel Medical School will accept only International students for now. We therefore have more places available than most UK Medical Schools.

We are among the few medical schools in the world to use Team-Based Learning as a significant method for classroom instruction. You will learn in small groups of 5-6 people facilitated by academics and TBL-enabled software. This is often referred to as the “flipped classroom” approach.

No, all Medicine students must start in Year 1 of the MBBS.

The General Medical Council (GMC) is the professional regulator for UK Primary Medical Qualifications, and will quality assure Brunel’s 5-year Medicine MBBS course with the goal of approving the school to award Primary Medical Qualifications. We are working closely with them to ensure our medical education and training will prepare you to deliver high quality care throughout your career. The GMC has started this process, which follows the first cohort to graduation, taking the form of a year-by-year review of our learning and training environments.

Yes, all prospective students will have an opportunity to visit the campus. We will provide information on our website about our Open Days organised.

Yes. Clinical placements begin in Year 1, and Brunel Medical School guarantees that placements will be available during the 5 years of the MBBS for all its medical students. 

Our clinical training providers are located across London and South East England.

Annual tuition is £40,000 for 2021/22 entry. Tuition fees will increase annually by no more than 5% or the RPI (Retail Price Index), whichever is the greater.

You should plan to spend around £800-1,000 monthly for on-campus student accommodation, food, and other expenses.

No. UK student loans are available only to UK or EU citizens.

You can pay your tuition fees in two instalments: 60 per cent of your first year’s course fees are due by enrolment and the remaining 40 per cent at the start of term two. If you pay all of your tuition fees by enrolment in September, you can get a 2 per cent discount on the overall fee. 

You have two options -

1)    You could apply during your gap year, ensuring you are able to forward your transcripts and any other documentation as well as being available for a Skype interview during your time away.

Or

2)    You could apply before commencing your gap year and, if you receive an admission offer, request to defer your entry to the Medicine course. Brunel Medical School will consider deferrals on a case-by-case basis.

We are looking for experiences that indicate a candidate has been exposed to the realities of a career in medicine. These could include shadowing a GP or hospital doctor; volunteering for St John’s Ambulance or the Red Cross; or undertaking voluntary or paid work in a hospice, care/nursing home or hospital. 

There are two options for interviews:

1. To attend the Multiple Mini Interview (MMI) in-person on our campus

Or 

2. To undertake the interview through videoconference, such as Zoom or Skype. Our virtual MMIs (VMMI) will be held several times during our admissions cycle starting in late Autumn.

We are looking for more than just someone who can recite information they have memorised; we are looking at the whole person and their aptitude for a career in medicine.

To help you get ready for this critical step in the admissions process, we suggest that you identify the key areas that you think might come up in the MMI, then practice answering questions centred on these core themes:

· Communication skills, empathy and compassion

· Ethical reasoning

· Professionalism

· Data interpretation and gathering

· Problem solving

· Personal qualities, motivation, work experience, medical insight and current affairs.

If you will be interviewed by video, we also have these tips:

1) Practice being interviewed online with a friend, record it, and then analyse how you performed to see how you came across on video. You will discover it is quite different to speaking to someone face-to-face!

2) However tempting it is  to have a set of notes close by to refer to off camera, you  should avoid doing this – it will become obvious that you are reading from a paper.

3) Remember this is an interview and you are on camera. Wear exactly what you would to a conventional interview – even down to your shoes!

Brunel Medical School’s Careers Advisor will guide you from the start of your medical studies, whether you intend to enter the UK Foundation Programme or return to your home country after graduating. We will help you in researching and understanding the requirements for practicing medicine in your country. We will work with you to identify additional resources and support you may require to meet the requirements.

Students who wish to practise medicine in North America will receive support and guidance for the licencing exams.

Topics covered by the USMLE will be built into the MBBS curriculum and will be supplemented by additional lectures on specific learning areas aimed at students wishing to take the USMLE.  Furthermore, the Medical School will identify outside consultancies that offer online or face-to-face preparation courses, which students can opt to take at their expense.

To ensure that our students are well prepared to pursue a medical career in the United States, we will also provide USMLE Step 1 Practice Tests, which are offered through the US National Board of Medical Examiners.  In addition, the International Foundations of Medicine (IFOM) practice test will be offered in Year 4 to help students prepare for the USMLE Step 2.  The questions in these practice tests are derived from the USMLE bank of questions, from which the USMLE examinations are generated.  

Yes, we guarantee on-campus accommodation for all medical students for the duration of the course. More details and our policy information can be found here.

Our dedicated Student Support team will guide you through the process of applying for a Tier 4 student visa. Details of this process are available here.

Please email our enquiries team enquiries@brunel.ac.uk

For general enquiries about the Medical School and Brunel email chris.holloway@brunel.ac.uk