Facilities

Leonard Deacon Lecture Theatre Studying on the MBChB course at Birmingham Medical School, you will benefit from a vast array of physical facilities and online resources to support your medical education during your time with us.

A wide range of facilities to support your learning

Group work, clinical skills training and simulation are integral parts of our MBChB course, delivering important transferable skills and giving you the experience of practical work that is essential for your future career.

The Medical School building houses a prosectorium where already dissected (prosected) human bodies are used in group learning of anatomy.

Group of students around an anatomy model — The Prosectorium

We also offer you the use of the tables, which enable you to interact with human anatomy on a large touch-screen under the guidance of anatomy tutors and demonstrators.

Group of students with a tutor around the anatomage table — Anatomage table

Lectures take place in our theatres which are equipped with the latest technology, including facilities to show movies, animations and graphics, to record lectures using Panopto and to interact with ‘ask the audience’ style electronic voting systems. The largest of our lecture theatres is the 450 seat Leonard Deacon Lecture Theatre, which is large enough to accommodate an entire year of 400 MBChB students. The Arthur Thomson Hall seats 398 and is also used for full cohort lectures.

Lecture theatre with green and grey seats and a two rows of grey tables — Arthur Thomson Hall

Seminars and small-group tutorials run alongside the lectures, allowing you to consolidate scientific and professional lecture material and address any questions you may have from the lectures.

Room with computers, screen and whiteboard — One of the many small group teaching rooms at Birmingham Medical School

Self-directed study is an essential part of the course and demonstrates your commitment to, and enthusiasm for, your subject and for the learning that will continue throughout your professional career. Self-directed study facilities are available throughout the Medical School building, including the Doug Ellis Learning Hub, comprised of open large study spaces with free loan of laptops available. Adjacent to this is the Barnes Medical Library, which houses many of the essential texts you will need to succeed on your undergraduate Medicine degree.

The Doug Ellis Learning Hub with tables and students studying — The Doug Ellis Learning Hub

The Medical School building also houses a large computer cluster with printing facilities on the second floor, comprising of 276 PCs this is one of the largest computer clusters on campus.

Lots of students at an computer cluster — Part of the computer cluster situated within Birmingham Medical School

Online facilities for supporting your learning

eLearning resources include Wiki podcasts and Canvas, our Virtual Learning Environment (VLE); an excellent tool for supporting our academic courses, allowing you to share thoughts on assignments with other students via the discussion group facilities, giving access to learning materials 24 hours a day and allowing you to submit your work electronically. All students also have access to Pebblepad to enable them to build their online portfolio from first year onwards.

From Year 3 onwards, students also have access to SCRIPT, an innovative eLearning course on prescribing and therapeutics, designed by staff of the College of Medical and Dental Sciences. SCRIPT is used by all Foundation Schools in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland, so having access at undergraduate level gives you a head start in preparing for your subsequent training.

Birmingham Medical School makes a wide range of ebooks and ejournals available for medical students which mean it is not necessary to buy a lot of expensive text books. These currently include: The BMJ (British Medical Journal), The Lancet, Gray’s Anatomy, Kumar & Clark's Clinical Medicine, and Rang & Dale's Pharmacology.

Day-to-day facilities

The Medical School building also offers the usual facilities you would expect from any usual large organisation. The building itself is open to staff and students 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and 365 days of the year with its own dedicated security staff.

Cafeteria with chairs, tables and a food counter at the back — The MedCafé in Birmingham Medical School

The building also has its own food and drink outlet, MedCafé, which serves hot food and drinks five days a week from 8:30am-4pm during term time. Space to relax is also available in the Wolfson Student Common Room which also has vending machines for hot and cold drinks and snacks.

Students studying in the common room — Wolfson Common Room

We also provide lockers for students, prayer rooms, meeting rooms for student societies and baby change/feeding facilities.