Intercalated Degrees

Why not step aside from your degree for a year to study an intercalated degree? Benefit from in depth scientific training in an area already of interest to you and develop practical research and analysis skills. 

At the College of Medicine and Health, intercalation is optional and open to both internal and external students. In order to intercalate, students will need to meet certain academic criteria which indicate that they are performing well on the medical degree programme. We accept applications for the below courses from any medical, dental or pharmacy student currently studying in the UK or EU, with the exception of our BMedSc Medical Sciences course and BSc Human Neuroscience course, which are open to University of Birmingham students exclusively. Current University of Birmingham students wishing to intercalate at another institution should refer to the Intercalation section within Canvas for details of the process of securing leave of absence for the purpose of intercalation.

Intercalation Degrees

These are our current intercalation opportunities, but we are expanding our offering so this list may be different by the time you come to Birmingham. 

• MSci Novel Emerging Medical Technology Evaluation and Development
• B.A. Medical Humanities
• BMedSc Medical Science 
• MSci Clinical Sciences 
• MSci Clinical Anatomy
• MSci Public and Global Health Sciences
• MMedSc Health Management and Leadership
• BMedSc History of Medicine
• BSc Human Neuroscience (The intercalated degree will follow the schema described for the 3rd year of the BSc Human Neuroscience course)
• BSc Sport, Exercise and Health Science (The intercalated degree will follow the schema described for the 3rd year of the BSc Sport, Exercise and Health Sciences course)

Those Birmingham medical students interested in cancer might also wish to consider transferring, during their intercalation year, into the PhD/MBChB programme in Oncology, funded by Cancer Research UK. We also support medical students in applying for British Heart Foundation MB-PhD studentships. Find out more about the PhD/MBChB programme. 

MSc or MRes intercalation

Medical students who have completed four years of their degree in Birmingham or elsewhere can also join intercalated Masters programmes running alongside Masters programmes which recruit more broadly. These intercalation programmes are:

• Intercalated Masters in Public Health
• Intercalated MSc Health Research Methods
• Intercalated MSc in Health Economics & Health Policy
• Intercalated MRes Cardiovascular Sciences
• Intercalated MSc Clinical Trials
• Intercalated MSc Health Data Science

Why do people choose to intercalate?

There are many benefits of intercalating, including receiving in depth scientific training in an area already of interest to you and develop practical research and analysis skills within that discipline. In addition to its intellectual challenge, the intercalated course enables you to:

• Develop and conduct your own research (which may lead to publication) 
• Receive an additional qualification of relevance to your future career
• Broaden your medical interests into an area outside the undergraduate curriculum or to take your interest to a higher level than can be covered within core curricula
• Develop and enhance transferable skills such as writing, project management, presentation skills, argument development and debating skills
• Study with students from outside a clinical medicine background (some courses only)  

Find out more

If you would like to find out more about intercalation, please email us at mdsintercalationenquiries@contacts.bham.ac.uk