UK vs. Aus Med School - Which is the better option?
Hey! I'm a Canadian high school senior. I received an offer from the University of Buckingham for medicine. I also received an offer from Griffith University for their 6-year medicine program (BMSc + MD). I'm having trouble choosing a university. The cost would be about the same, but the program is slightly shorter in the UK. I'm alright practising outside of Canada. In your opinion, which university is the better option and why? Any insight would be greatly appreciated! Thank you 
Original post by happy_16
Hey! I'm a Canadian high school senior. I received an offer from the University of Buckingham for medicine. I also received an offer from Griffith University for their 6-year medicine program (BMSc + MD). I'm having trouble choosing a university. The cost would be about the same, but the program is slightly shorter in the UK. I'm alright practising outside of Canada. In your opinion, which university is the better option and why? Any insight would be greatly appreciated! Thank you
Hi! As a UK student who is planning to study Medicine in Australia (specifically Melbourne), I would personally choose Griffith over Buckingham.
Buckingham is the only privatised medical school in the UK (even UK students cannot get student loans for Buckingham!) and so it is quite inaccessible for many people from widening backgrounds like me; I imagine that the student population there is not as diverse as other medical schools here if that's something you consider important. It might also mean that the student life in Buckingham is not as lively (although I've never actually visited there so I can't say for certain).
On the other hand, Griffith is on the Gold Coast and many students, both Australian and international, go there to study because it's a very scenic area combined with lots of urban features. Griffith's BMSc is also highly regarded because it's one of the hardest degrees to get into (Australian students need top grades to even be eligible to apply) and the degree only lasts 2 years, meaning that it's very intensive and designed for only the best students (which I imagine you are if you got an offer from them!).
Hope this helps!
UK NHS is badly underfunded. Actually many British doctors have moved to Australia for good.
Original post by happy_16
Hey! I'm a Canadian high school senior. I received an offer from the University of Buckingham for medicine. I also received an offer from Griffith University for their 6-year medicine program (BMSc + MD). I'm having trouble choosing a university. The cost would be about the same, but the program is slightly shorter in the UK. I'm alright practising outside of Canada. In your opinion, which university is the better option and why? Any insight would be greatly appreciated! Thank you
Hey @happy_16, I am an ex-student who graduated from the Griffith BMed/MD program. Firstly, congratulations on getting the offer because the program is very highly regarded in Australia and only the top of the top high school students can get into this program. You might be wondering what I meant by that. In Australia, we have a system called ATAR, basically it's a ranking system based on your high school score - meaning you are competing with every student in Australia of that year. The highest mark (ranking) is 99.99 which means you are the first/top student of the whole Australia in that year. To get into the program, you need to get at least 99.50 and above to be competitive/be considered (not even offered!). Compared with GCE A level which will give you an A if you score above certain marks, in Australia, students are ranked (so even if you score 90 in the exam, you can still get low ATAR score due to the ranking system). In summary, if you tell anyone in Australia (especially high school students/graduates that you are studying medical science at Griffith, they know you are the top students of that year). The program accepts only a handful of students. In my year, there are only ~40 students), and we are very close like a fam and still in contact with one another.
In terms of the difficulty level of the program, it is a 2-year accelerated but very intensive bachelor degree (pre-med) where you will be taking 5 courses instead of 3 courses per semester. Every week you will have at least one assignment due or one quiz to take. In my year, we have 3 finals in one day (morning, afternoon, and evening at 8 o'clock) and we had one more final the next morning, so we all were walking zombies. You will also not have a break semester! The maximum GPA is 7 (high distinction) and in my year, most students' average GPA was above 6.5!
Once you finish the BMed program (Premed), you will be smoothly transitioned to MD (Doctor of Medicine) program. Granted, the first two years of BMed program is very intensive. However, that will make you question if you really want to study medicine. Someone who have gone through the program, I will let you know in advance that MD will be even harder than BMed. Not to discredit, I have a cousin who finished medicine in the UK, and he told me there was a lot of spoon-feeding, guidance, help and basically telling you exactly what to study. However, the Aussie MD is like American MD program which wants medical students to be independent learners. Don't get me wrong, they will teach you the basic and 'show you the way'. So if you study only the school lectures, you will be at the bottom of the cohort. Analogy will be if they teach you 2 digits addition and multiplication, you need to go learn on your own 3-4 digits addition and multiplication PLUS subtraction and division. You will see the significance of being independent learners when you go into clinical years (rotations/clerkships in the hospitals) - because by then you know exactly where to look up information and learn.
Since this is an MD program, there is a research component, so Griffith MD program grills the students from the very first day asking students to read research paper in every PBL case.
BMed is like a transition period that will ease you into MD, and also it will expose you to the medical field. 1-2 students left after a year because they realised that medicine was not for them. Some persevered and finished the BMed but did not continue the MD program. At least, they did not waste their 2 years, and ended up getting a degree. I heard from another friend who studied medicine in the UK that some students who left after 2nd year of medicine, did not get any degree. Ooops!
Sorry, I can't speak for the Uni Buckingham.
Hope this helps!
Anyway,
Quick Reply
Related discussions
- Is it better to study Law LLB in the UK or Australia?
- Is imperial med school worth it?
- Switching to medicine
- Leicester med school vs HYMS?
- buckingham vs queens belfast for medicine
- I got rejected from all 4 med schools and don’t know what to do
- Is taking an alevel not irrelevant to my degree and career choice a bad idea?
- Medicine at UNIC vs. RCSI
- Career choices
- Defer or resit A Levels to get into medicine
- Visa for Australian Elective
- Dropped out of medical school, now want to rejoin
- Oxford vs Cambridge
- medicine vs engineering
- bradfield for sixth form?
- Loughborough university or ESCP (BA)?
- Low ucat score
- (help pleaseee) A Level Options for Medicine
- Pharmacology vs. Biochem?
- KCL vs Edinburgh?
Latest
Trending
Last reply 1 week ago
What agencies should i apply through to study dentistry abroad from UK?Last reply 2 weeks ago
New Vision University, Georgia, Dentistry Applications from UKTrending
Last reply 1 week ago
What agencies should i apply through to study dentistry abroad from UK?Last reply 2 weeks ago
New Vision University, Georgia, Dentistry Applications from UK
