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Student at the Open University
Open University
Milton Keynes

Can I study medicine with a biology degree?

I’m planning on studying at the Open University due to issues making me currently unable to go away for Uni (these issues will be resolved within the next year or two so no this doesn’t affect my long term career choice). However, the Open University doesn’t offer a specific medicine degree, so my options are either a Healthcare and Health Sciences degree or a Biology degree. Will either of these allow me to study Graduate Entry Medicine later on?
Reply 1
Avatar for maisie2162
maisie2162
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2
If you don’t mind me asking, yes to which? Or are both courses suitable?
Student at the Open University
Open University
Milton Keynes
Depends on the university and their entry requirements for GEM. Some uni's for GEM are very prescriptive as to the type of degrees that they want. Others are less so. Warwick for example will accept any degree in any discipline. It depends where you want to study medicine. Not every uni will accept a degree in the subjects offered by the OU - it's not the OU that's the problem, but the subject.

Best thing to do is email prospective medical schools and ask them directly. Without wanting to sound off - you really need to research this yourself for your specific needs and not take people's words for it. It would be really crappy if you put loads of effort into getting a great degree result from the OU and not be able to use it where you wanted to use it. Research time now will pay off in the long run.

Combined STEM pathway with the OU might be worth looking at. For example, one uni I messaged told me they would accept pretty much any degree as long as it had enough chemistry content. So a life sciences pathway with the OU would be more beneficial than a biology one for that uni. Does this make sense?
Reply 3
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maisie2162
OP
2
Original post by OUScienceStudent
Depends on the university and their entry requirements for GEM. Some uni's for GEM are very prescriptive as to the type of degrees that they want. Others are less so. Warwick for example will accept any degree in any discipline. It depends where you want to study medicine. Not every uni will accept a degree in the subjects offered by the OU - it's not the OU that's the problem, but the subject.

Best thing to do is email prospective medical schools and ask them directly. Without wanting to sound off - you really need to research this yourself for your specific needs and not take people's words for it. It would be really crappy if you put loads of effort into getting a great degree result from the OU and not be able to use it where you wanted to use it. Research time now will pay off in the long run.

Combined STEM pathway with the OU might be worth looking at. For example, one uni I messaged told me they would accept pretty much any degree as long as it had enough chemistry content. So a life sciences pathway with the OU would be more beneficial than a biology one for that uni. Does this make sense?

Yes thank you! I’ll do more research and find out specifics. Thanks so much for the advice!

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