The medical school offers two programs to students, the BSc (Hons) in Medicine program teaches medical students for the first three years of their training, with students completing this training, earning their MB ChB/MBBS at various partner medical schools in the UK in a pre-arranged fashion. The school also offers a 4-year graduate entry medical program in combination with the University of Dundee, awarding a joint MB ChB from the University of St Andrews and Dundee.
From the 17th to the 19th centuries, medical degrees from St Andrews were awarded by an early version of distance learning. The university awarded the degree of MD to individuals who were usually already established in medical practice, the first being conferred in 1696. This degree was awarded on the basis of a testimonial written by a supervisor, and a fee was paid to the university. The whole process was conducted through the post, and the candidate did not have to visit the university. Recipients of the MD at this time include the French Revolutionary, Jean-Paul Marat (1743–1793), who obtained his MD in 1775 for an essay on gonorrhea, and Edward Jenner (1749–1823), who developed the first smallpox vaccine, and was awarded the MD in 1792.
In the early 19th century, examinations were introduced. Students had to visit St Andrews to sit them, but there was no teaching at the university.
The founding of the Bute Medical School
In 1897, as Rector of the University of St Andrews, the 3rd Marquess of Bute, in addition to his provident restorations of other university buildings, initiated the construction of the current Bute Medical Buildings, south of St Mary's College, completed in 1899. The buildings, much added to and modified, especially after a gift from Andrew Carnegie, built labs to the north (now the Carnegie Building). These provided for the establishment of a regular medical school, which both taught and examined medical students. The 3rd Marquess of Bute also provided for the establishment of a new chair of medicine—the Bute Chair of Medicine.
Bute Medical Building
The St Andrews-Dundee course
In 1898, University College Dundee - which had been created in 1891 - became affiliated to the University of St Andrews,[2]
and it was this that enabled a full undergraduate medical degree to be offered by St Andrews, as the City of Dundee had a large population and contained several hospitals where students could receive clinical teaching. Together, the Bute Medical School and clinical facilities at University College Dundee formed a conjoint medical school.[1]
Medical students could either undertake their pre-clinical teaching at the Bute Medical School in St Andrews or go straight to Dundee for their pre-clinical years, and then the two groups combined to complete their clinical training in Dundee. Students were awarded the degree of MB ChB by the University of St Andrews.
In 1954, University College Dundee changed its name to Queen's College, but remained part of the University of St Andrews.
In a great many respects, the medical school at the University of Dundee is the direct inheritor of the medical traditions of St Andrews University. The same can be said of the Dundee dental school.
As the clinical part of the medical school (along with other parts of the University of St Andrews, including the Law and Engineering Faculties) had been completely based in Dundee, this left St Andrews with no clinical medical school or teaching hospital in which medical students could receive clinical training. The Universities (Scotland) Act 1966 also removed the University of St Andrews's right to award undergraduate and postgraduate degrees in medicine, including the MBChB and MD. However, in more recent times the right to award the MD (St Andrews) has been restored.
The link with the Medical Schools of Manchester and Keele
In order to continue to be able to offer access to a medical degree, St Andrews established a new link with the English Victoria University of Manchester in 1970, which was at that time seeking to enlarge its medical school. Students completed a three-year BSc in medical science at St Andrews, and could optionally complete an extra intercalated year for the award of BSc Hons at St Andrews, before completing their clinical training at the University of Manchester, with the final MBChB awarded by Manchester.
Between 2002 and 2006 there was also the ‘option’ (mostly allocated on a compulsory basis) of completing clinical training at Keele University Medical School in Stoke-on-Trent, and annually around twenty St Andrews graduates went to Keele University. This option no longer exists for students.
Recent history
Major changes to the curriculum were made in 2000 with increased emphasis on psychology and cellular biology, with the introduction of a two-year course in cellular and molecular medicine and a three-year course in behavioural sciences. Further curriculum changes took place in 2004, with a reduction in the amount of teaching but the introduction of a research project into the final year, allowing for an honours degree to be attained after three years' study, and therefore since September 2005, the University of St Andrews has offered a Bachelor of Science with honours in Medicine (BSc Hons Medicine).
Admissions
St Andrews uses the multiple mini interview format, an interview system first developed by McMaster University Medical School which exposes applicants to several interviews of shorter time, exposing the applicant to more interviewers and reducing the chance that one bad or good interview determines the applicants success at gaining admissions.[citation needed]
Courses
Medical degree programme
The BSc (Hons) programme is three years long; on graduating from St Andrews, students will progress to one of the university's partner medical schools in Scotland or England for a further three years. Partner medical schools include Manchester, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Barts and the London, Aberdeen and Dundee. Applicants who are ‘overseas’ for fee purposes will progress to the Medical School at the University of Manchester.
At the end of the six-year programme, students will have completed their training as a doctor and graduate with MBChB/MBBS.[3]
First year
In the first year of the course, the modules provide a scientific foundation for clinical practice. Students also commence communication and clinical skills training, alongside patient interaction, which continues throughout all three years. [4]
Second year
The Honours programme, which runs through both second and third year, focuses in detail upon the normal function and dysfunction of specific physiological systems. Students attend a range of community-based clinical placements.[4]
Third year
In third year, the first semester focuses on complex integrative physiological systems (central nervous system and endocrine organs). Semester 2 is focused on a significant student-selected Honours research project, as well as the application of medicine and developing clinical skills. Students participate in secondary care based clinical placements.
The course is led for first and second year by the University of St Andrews and in third and fourth year by the University of Dundee. The course focuses on rural medicine and healthcare improvement with students living and studying in rural areas from second year onwards.[5]
The course undertook its first cohort of students in 2018 with the intention of graduating students in September 2022 and awarding a joint degree from the University of St Andrews and the University of Dundee.[6]
Postgraduate
In 2002 the Scottish Parliament passed the University of St Andrews (Postgraduate Medical Degrees) Act 2002 which re-instated the university's right to award the postgraduate research degree of Medicinae Doctor (MD) to students who have completed two years of full-time or up to 5 years of part-time research, which had been removed by the Universities (Scotland) Act 1966.[7][8] The first MD since 1967 was awarded in 2004.[citation needed]
Facilities and buildings
New Medical School
The University of St Andrews’ new Medical and Biological Sciences Building brings together the medical school (relocated from the Bute Building), biologists, physicists and chemists, while also linking to the School of Physics and Astronomy via a first-floor bridge—making it one of the first medical schools in the UK to fully integrate research facilities across the sciences.
The School, which has been built at a cost of £45m, contains research laboratory space, as well as teaching facilities and a lecture theatre.[9]
Medical Societies
Over recent years, many medical societies have been developed, alongside the historical Bute Medical Society, to help incorporate the clinical aspects into the course—one which was traditionally science-based only. These societies include Surgical, Clinical and Preventative medical societies.
The Bute Medical Society
Bute Medical School Scarf
The Bute Medical Society was founded in 1915, by its first president Margaret Shirlaw, with the support of Miss Mildred Clark, Calum McCrimmon, Clive Mackie Whyte, Cecily Thistlewaite, Mary Ellison and W.G. Robertson. The initial aim of the society was to hold clinically oriented lectures that the students could attend voluntarily. This tradition still continues today with the society's bimonthly 'cheese and wine' evening. As an independent, non-profit organisation it is still run entirely by medical students, supported by some sponsorship.[10] Fundraising events held throughout the year also enable the society to contribute to charities.
Surgical Society
In 2009, a small group of students set up the university's first surgical interest society. Since then, a multitude of lectures, skills workshops and anatomy revision tutorials have been run by the society and it continues to grow in size. The Robert Walmsley Lecture was created in 2011 as a yearly event held in the old Bute Buildings to commemorate this previous setting of the teaching of medicine in St Andrews; the inaugural lecture was delivered by David Sinclair.
Research areas
Research at the school is grouped into four main areas:[11]
Cellular medicine
Education
Infection and global health
Population and behavioural science
Research Institutes
WHO Collaborating Centre for International Child & Adolescent Health Policy
Child and Adolescent Health Research Unit (CAHRU)
Scottish Healthcare Associated Infection Prevention Institute
Academic dress
St Andrews undergraduate medical students are members of the United College of St Salvator and St Leonard, and as such wear the scarlet gown with burgundy velvet collar for official academic occasions. They graduate as a BSc or BSc (Hons) and so wear a black gown with a fuchsia hood trimmed with white fur. On graduation from Manchester they are entitled to wear a black gown with scarlet hood trimmed with white fur, and black cap.
When postgraduate students graduate with the MD degree, they wear a black gown with a crimson hood with a white lining, alternatively they may wear a crimson gown.
Alumni
Medical students at the University of St Andrews have included:
British physician, introduced over 14 anesthetics including methylene bichloride, invented the double valve mouthpiece for administration of chloroform
Plastic surgeon, co-founder and President of the British Association of Plastic Surgeons, founding editor of the British Journal of Plastic Surgery, developed the Wallace rule of nines, a method of determining the proportion of body affected by burns
Chandos Chair of Medicine and Anatomy 1841-1849, FRCP 1836
Scottish physician, described the function of the glossopharyngeal nerve and vagus nerve. He also proved the heart had a double innervation through the vagus and sympathetic nerves
In 2010 the Bute Medical School of the University of St Andrews, where Black had studied his initial degree in medicine, unveiled that an honorary 'Sir James Black Chair of Medicine' would be created. This post remained unfilled for the remainder of the academic year 2009–2010. In September 2010 the first Chair of Medicine at the ancient University was given to Professor Stephen H Gillespie MD, DSc, FRCP (Edin), FRC Path, leaving his post as Professor of Medical Microbiology at UCL.
The John Reid Chair of Pathology
In 2012 the Bute Medical School of the University of St Andrews, appointed Prof. David Harrison to the John Reid Chair of Pathology, leaving his previous post as the Head of Division of Pathology in the University of Edinburgh. He remains an Honorary Consultant Pathologist in Lothian University Hospitals Division and Director of the Breakthrough Research Unit, Edinburgh.
Ann Gloag Chair of Global Health Implementation
The current holder of this chair appointed in 2013 is Prof. Will Stones
