Further information and application forms can be obtained from Yvonne Palmer in the Teaching Support Office (School of Cancer Sciences), email: y.palmer@bham.ac.uk or phone 0121 414 8099.
All interested students are invited to attend the open evening which will take place on Monday 16th January 2012 at 4pm, in room S104 (Cancer Studies) where there will be refreshments and a brief introduction given by some of the project supervisors about their projects.
Application Form (pdf, 135KB, opens in a new window)
Enrolment Form (for external students only) (pdf, 56KB, opens in a new window)
Available Projects List 2012 - 2013 (pdf, 1.4MB, opens in a new window)
Sample timetable (pdf, 296KB, opens in new window)
Deadline for applications: Friday 3rd February 2012
Standard fees apply. Learn more about fees and funding.
The Association of Clinical Pathologists has a number of financial assistance schemes that can be applied for each year.
Scholarships
Learn more about our scholarships and awards
Birmingham CRUK Centre Award for Intercalating B.Med.Sci. (Clinical Sciences) students
The Birmingham Cancer Research UK (CR-UK) centre supports cancer research across campus and at local hospital partners. Part of the funding that the Birmingham CR-UK Centre receives is ringfenced to fund clinical training, the goal being to train the clinical research workforce of the future (one of the CR-UK 2020 goals). This year, the CR-UK Centre will utilise some of this funding to pilot a scheme to support the B.Med.Sci (Clinical Sciences) Intercalation course. This is a one year intercalated degree that MBChB students can choose to join after the 3rd or 4th years of their MBChB course. This intercalation offers 'Cancer Studies' as a module in the course and our aim is to attract the best research-orientated medical students into cancer research at the earliest stages of their career.
Award details
Personal bursary award: this will be awarded directly to the student. There will be a single personal award of £2,000 made to the intercalating student who achieves the highest mark in their Clinical Sciences examination in their 3rd year of study and who undertakes a cancer related project (1,2).
Notes
1) In the event that the student receiving the Jean Shanks Award has selected a cancer related project, this student will receive the Jean Shanks Award and the CRUK bursary will be awarded to the student with the next highest mark in their 3rd year Clinical Sciences examination undertaking a cancer related project
2) Cancer related projects are indicated as ‘Cancer Sciences’ in the discipline section of each project outline available online
Key dates
Applications for the intercalating BMedSci (Clinical Sciences) course must be received by Friday 3rd February 2012. The successful student will receive an award letter confirming the personal bursary award available through the Birmingham CR-UK Centre Award once they have accepted their offer letter of a place on the intercalating B.Med.Sci. (Clinical Sciences) course.
The Birmingham Cancer Research UK (CR-UK) centre supports cancer research across campus and at local hospital partners. Part of the funding that the Birmingham CR-UK Centre receives is ringfenced to fund clinical training, the goal being to train the clinical research workforce of the future (one of the CR-UK 2020 goals). This year, the CR-UK Centre will utilise some of this funding to pilot a scheme to support the B.Med.Sci (Clinical Sciences) Intercalation course. This is a one year intercalated degree that MBChB students can choose to join after the 3rd or 4th years of their MBChB course. This intercalation offers 'Cancer Studies' as a module in the course and our aim is to attract the best research-orientated medical students into cancer research at the earliest stages of their career. Personal bursary award: this will be awarded directly to the student. There will be a single personal award of £2,000 made to the intercalating student who achieves the highest mark in their Clinical Sciences examination in their 3rd year of study and who undertakes a cancer related project (1,2). 1) In the event that the student receiving the Jean Shanks Award has selected a cancer related project, this student will receive the Jean Shanks Award and the CRUK bursary will be awarded to the student with the next highest mark in their 3rd year Clinical Sciences examination undertaking a cancer related project 2) Cancer related projects are indicated as ‘Cancer Sciences’ in the discipline section of each project outline available online Applications for the intercalating BMedSci (Clinical Sciences) course must be received by . The successful student will receive an award letter confirming the personal bursary award available through the Birmingham CR-UK Centre Award once they have accepted their offer letter of a place on the intercalating B.Med.Sci. (Clinical Sciences) course.
BMedSc Intercalated Awards
Up to 14 awards will be made to students from the University of Birmingham (medicine or dentistry programmes) who will be intercalating on any of the Birmingham BMedSc programmes. Each is worth up to £3000 and will be awarded following a competitive application process.
Some of the awards place conditions upon the type of work that will be funded. But, from the breadth of intercalating study undertaken in the past we expect that it will not be a problem to match particular awards with study areas. We would like to point out, however, that three of the awards have the condition that they must be used to support a student working in the field of infectious diseases. Please note that this aspect of study could be encompassed by any of the three main intercalating programmes. If no student qualifies no award will be made.
Only those students who achieve an overall year 2 mark of 65% or more will be eligible for consideration for an award. It is expected that decisions on awards will be made sometime in July 2012.
Submission:
By the deadline date of 2nd July 2012, you must submit the following in electronic format:
A statement of no more than 200 words outlining why you wish to intercalate and how you perceive that this will benefit your future career.
A hypothetical research proposal (no more than 500 words). You may choose any area of clinical/medical research but you must identify a specific research question that you could address during your intercalation studies. The chosen area need not relate directly to your chosen intercalated programme (some students may lack confidence in the research methods employed within the discipline). Your proposal must include and take account of the following:
A. Summary of published evidence that provides relevant background within the study area
B. Reasoned arguments to justify the importance and relevance of the proposed research topic with some suggestion of how it may impact on knowledge or clinical practice.
C. An outline of how the work will be carried out. You will not be in a position to describe your methods / techniques / approaches in detail but you should be able to demonstrate that you are able to design a project that has a reasonable chance of success and that you appreciate the potential pitfalls and limitations in your study design.
D. Take care to ensure that the study design provides a feasible and rational method for addressing the research question and that you do not require an unreasonable amount of resource to achieve your objectives. Thus, for example, in the context of a student project, it is neither feasible nor reasonable to suggest that you will organise and run a major clinical trial (with involvement of 100’s of participants). On the other hand, it is reasonable to have specialist support and, as described in the example project in the accompanying document, to recruit the support of three general practices for carrying out your study.
Please see the accompanying document for additional guidance on writing this proposal. The reference list is not included in the word limit but should be no more than 20 references.
Please note, depending on the intercalating programme, you may not have free choice in selecting your actual research project, though all programmes do provide choice.
Please submit your documents to: Ms Yvonne Palmer: y.palmer@bham.ac.uk
Decisions:
Awards will be made by a committee comprising representatives of all three intercalating programmes who will consider both academic merit (year 2 mark) and the quality of the application (based on assessment of both points 1 and 2, above). It is expected that once an academic threshold has been reached, the decision will rest primarily on the excellence of the written submission.
Conditions of an award:
All students must inform the admissions tutor for their programme if they are in receipt of funds to support their intercalation from any other source. It is not expected that a BMedSc Intercalated Award will be made to anyone who is in receipt of such funds.
The money will be paid, where possible, in equal monthly amounts over a 10 month period during the academic year.
Upon completion of the intercalating programme, a one-page summary of the achievements and benefits gained from the programme is required. This must also acknowledge receipt of the award.
The Intercalated degree in Clinical Sciences provides training in Pathological Studies as a scientific subject with the opportunity to undertake an 8 month project within a laboratory. This honours degree will benefit you in your clinical work both immediately and in later years and it will help when you apply for jobs.
The course consists of:
-
a research project which leads to a thesis to be submitted by mid-April. Students spend approximately 60% of their time on their research projects
-
a choice of 6 out of 10 optional taught modules (10 credits each) in the various disciplines of Clinical Sciences
You will also follow an introductory module (Research Methodology) which will provide you with training in laboratory skills. Teaching will take place from September 2012. Students will work on their research project alongside the taught modules and complete a dissertation by April.
Syllabus
You will be required to study six, from a choice of ten optional modules:
-
Cancer Studies
-
Rheumatology & Orthopaedics
-
Haematology
-
Immunology
-
Infection
-
Pathology
-
Anatomy & Trauma
-
Endocrinology
-
Liver and GI Medicine
-
Evolutionary basis of clinical medicine
Assessment
The 6 chosen modules will be examined by multiple choice questions. The only essay and written work that you will do will be in the thesis, which remains a good test of ability to communicate through written work.