Warwick Medical School

History

The school was established as a collaborative venture with the University of Leicester. Professor Ian Lauder was appointed Dean of the joint school. The first students to study at Warwick arrived in September 2000. The school had temporary headquarters on the main University of Warwick campus until the Medical Teaching Centre was completed in August 2001 and was formally opened by the Secretary of State for Health in 2002. In 2003 Professor Yvonne Carter was appointed as Vice-Dean, before taking on the role of Dean of Warwick Medical School the following year..

The first MBChB students graduated in 2004, the same year that the old Mathematics and Statistics building at Gibbet Hill was refurbished and renamed the Medical School Building. This building is now home to the Dean’s Office, the Warwick Clinical Trials Unit and HSRI. The Clinical Sciences Research Institute was opened on the site of University Hospital Coventry and Warwickshire in 2005, by Sir Graeme Catto, President of the General Medical Council. In 2006, the school opened a Biomedical Learning Grid for students. This study resource is equipped with up-to-date IT equipment, interactive white boards, plasma screens and PCs as well as more traditional learning materials such as reference texts and anatomical models.

Following an intensive period of assessment in 2006 by the General Medical Council, Warwick was formally recommended to receive independent degree-awarding status. This was enacted on 2 May 2007 when the Medical Act was amended by Her Majesty the Queen in the Privy Council. Independent degree-awarding status came into effect on 6 June 2007. MBChB graduates in the summer of 2007 were the first to receive University of Warwick medical degrees.

After Professor Carter's premature death in July 2009, she was succeeded as Dean by Professor Peter Winstanley (formerly University of Liverpool). At the end of 2014, Winstanley vacacted the role of Dean to take up a head of faculty role and the previous Deputy Dean, Professor Sudhesh Kumar, was appointed Acting Dean for one year in the first instance.

In April 2013, Warwick Medical School received an Athena SWAN Silver award for its school-wide work supporting the Charter for Women in Science. It was the first medical school in England to hold the Silver award. It was awarded the Bronze award in April 2012.

Teaching

The Warwick MBChB

Warwick offers a four-year Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery (MB ChB) to graduates. Applicants must have a good (upper second and above) degree or equivalent.

Year one is delivered through largely university-based teaching, including integrated clinical exposure in various settings. Students are allocated to small learning groups made up of around ten students of different backgrounds and experiences. Alongside the required modules, students also undertake a Student Selected Component (SSC).

Year two gradually increases the amount of time spent learning in health care settings, so that students become immersed in community and hospital-based clinical teaching. In years three and four, the majority of learning is based in the community and in hospitals through the school’s partner trusts.

The majority of the clinical placements are in three hospitals; University Hospital Coventry and Warwickshire (UHCW), Warwick Hospital and George Eliot Hospital with some in Redditch, Rugby and Worcester. Placements are also provided in primary and community care settings, ranging from GP practices to outreach projects and mental health services in the local area.

The admissions procedure for the MB ChB course begins with an application through UCAS. Prospective students must also take the UK Clinical Aptitude Test (UKCAT) in the year preceding their application. A proportion of applicants are invited to a selection centre which involves 6 multiple mini interviews. Successful applicants are then selected based on their performance at the selection centre. The MB ChB course has an intake of 178 full-time students each year.

Continuing Professional Development (CPD)

The school has more than 2,000 students undertaking taught postgraduate programmes and continuing professional development (CPD) courses. The majority of students study courses part-time and a key feature is the flexible approach to teaching and learning, with a range of provision including Postgraduate Awards, Postgraduate Certificates, Postgraduate Diplomas, Master's degrees, Undergraduate Level CPD courses and Non-accredited training. Subject areas include Dentistry, Diabetes, Public Health, Health Sciences, Advanced Practice, Critical Care and Health Research. The Medical School also offers taught Postgraduate programmes in Medical Education designed to provide health care professionals involved in the delivery of teaching and training in the health care environment with appropriate pedagogic skills.

Research Degrees

The school offers a four-year full-time PhD, an up to seven years part-time PhD or a two-year full-time or three year part-time MPhil.

Postgraduate students can also choose to study for an MSc by Research, one year full-time or two years part-time, or an MD (Doctor of Medicine) which is a two-year full-time or three year part-time course of study. The school also offers the PhD by Published Work with a minimum of six months registration prior to submission.

All students have a team of two or more supervisors except for those in the PhD by Published Work, who have an academic advisor. The supervisory team meet on a regular basis with the student to ensure adequate monitoring and supervision of the student. The School works in close collaboration with a number of departments within the University. This collaboration enables students to have supervisors from different departments with different expertise.

The Health Sciences Research Institute (HSRI)

The HSRI specialises in community focused academic research with links to NHS trusts and is the co-ordinating centre for the Warwick and West Midlands Primary Care Research Network. The institute covers epidemiology, clinical trials, biostatistics, health economics, modelling, social sciences and psychology. Key research areas include are public mental health, emergency care and rehabilitation, cancer and primary care. There are also developing areas such as health care systems improvement.

Warwick Clinical Trials Unit

The unit was set up in 2005 within the HSRI. It is an academic clinical trials unit with expertise in the design and conduct of trials, particularly of complex health states and interventions. The trials unit has four major areas of work: musculoskeletal conditions including injury prevention and management; cancer; clinical trials methodology; and systematic reviews. The unit has grown dramatically since 2005 and a new Clinical Trials Building is planned for the Gibbet Hill campus. The Wolfson Foundation is supporting this new building with a £1 million grant.

The Clinical Sciences Research Institute

The institute (CSRI) has a modern, purpose-built facility on the site of the major regional University Hospital Coventry and Warwickshire (UHCW) and was opened in 2005. It specialises in translational medicine, epidemiology and clinical effectiveness. There are 36 senior research academics based at the institute, which has equipment for molecular, cellular, proteomic, transcriptomic and functional studies. The institute’s research themes are consistent with the strategic areas of development at University Hospital Coventry and Warwickshire.

Research at Warwick Medical School is structured into six divisions: • Biomedical Cell Biology • Health Sciences • Mental Health and Wellbeing • Metabolic and Vascular Health • Reproductive Health • Microbiology and Infection

The school is a founding partner of the Institute of Digital Healthcare, which sits within the University of Warwick, set up in partnership with NHS West Midlands, Warwick Manufacturing Group and Warwick Medical School.

The school is an academic partner in CLAHRC West Midlands, which is hosted by University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust (UHB) with the Universities of Birmingham, Warwick and Keele. It is also one of the founding academic partners in the West Midlands Academic Health Sciences Network.

Student life

The medic community is brought together under the leadership of the University of Warwick Medical Society ('Warwick Medsoc') who organise social events, Medics sports (so as not to clash with their busy timetables) and the yearly Revue whose function is mainly to poke fun at the Medical School and the NHS.

In 2005 a student-led project initiated Medics Without A Paddle to write an e-book containing free revision notes for all the 70-odd pages of objectives that students were expected to cover during their phase II clinical attachments. The material is entirely produced by the student body and a qualified previous student oversees new entries. This project was conceived of to promote co-operation between students in spreading the knowledge and experiences gained from a variety of sources and as of 2008 was in use at both Warwick and Leicester medical schools.

Since 2010, a group of Warwick medical students have started a medical education magazine and website called Med Quarterly.

There are a number of other Warwick Medical School societies, including:

Warwick Medical Students have also been published in national, peer-reviewed journals and have given national presentations on various topics.