MBChB Medicine

As a medical student at ARU, you’ll have use of our cutting-edge skills laboratories and ARU Anatomy Centre. Our experienced tutors include consultants, surgeons, nurses and GPs – and they’re joined by visiting clinicians from NHS Trusts.

But you won’t just learn on campus. Placements start early and continue throughout your course. You’ll get experience in primary and acute care settings, and in specialist medical centres.

There’s a genuine need for qualified medical professionals and, as a doctor, you’ll be ready to build a bright future for yourself – and your patients.

About Medicine qualifications

Medicine degree - To become a doctor in the UK you need a GMC-approved Medical degree. For historical reasons different institutions give their degrees different names: you might graduate as a Bachelor of Medicine and Surgery with the letters MBBCh, MBChB, MBChirB, MBBS or a few other options after your name. It does not matter which you choose, they are equivalent and enable you to progress into the next stage of your training (a foundation programme then GP or specialty training). The GMC-approved degree from ARU is an MBChB.

A BA Medicine, BSc Medicine or similar-sounding degrees such as our BSc Medical Science is not a qualification to practice medicine.

Training as a doctor opens up a range of career paths, with opportunities to undertake further training and specialise in an area of medicine that’s of real interest to you.

When you graduate with your MBChB degree you’ll be able to apply for the two-year Foundation Training programme. During this programme you combine work experience with further training – essentially it’s your first paid job as a doctor.

Having studied with us you’ll be in a good position to apply to the Essex, Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire (EBH) Foundation School.

Once you complete foundation training, you can choose to work as a doctor, or to apply for further study in a particular medical specialism. There are around 60 specialisms you could follow, with options including GP training, surgery, paediatrics, emergency medicine and pathology.

With an ageing population and a shortage of GPs and healthcare professionals, career opportunities abound in Essex. As a qualified doctor here, you will find that you have a genuine opportunity to change people’s lives.