How important is an intercalated year for someone thinking about a career in academic medicine?
It’s a very, very good first step along the road – and a good way of finding out if a research career is for you.
Even if the students don’t go on to develop a research strand in their work, the experience still helps them understand the importance of research in advancing medical knowledge and assessing new developments. The critical skills they develop won’t go to waste and they also acquire additional knowledge and experience. For example, one of the students I supervised, looking at paediatric lung function, now works as a GP. During the BSc, he gained a lot experience working with children and those sorts of skills carry through.
What do you see as the benefits of doing an intercalated degree?
It’s an opportunity for students to do quite a few things – they will spend time studying something they’re really interested in in depth, they’ll find out how research is really done and whether they like doing it, they experience a different intellectual experience from the rest of their medical training and they have freedom from the demands of the medical curriculum timetable for a year. I think a lot of students perceive it as an opportunity for career advancement and I think that’s true, at least in their early career progression. But I always advise students that if that is their only reason for doing the extra year – because it will get them a better job in the future – then they will find the year hard going. Having an intercalated degree may be of benefit in a competitive job market, but while they are doing the year, other sources of motivation are really important. A real interest in what you’re studying is the best motivation for getting through the ups and downs of a research project.
What about the down sides of an extra year?
Finance is the biggest issue. All medical students end up with substantial debt after their training and an intercalated year means one extra year of debt and delaying earning a salary for another 12 months. It’s hard to tell whether or not this is acting as a big deterrent for students, because the students it deters most are probably the ones we don’t see – they may never even consider the course. (See Funding)
How do intercalated years work at Leicester?
Most medical students at Leicester intercalate after the third year of medical school. The students self-select, applying during their third years. It is unusual for a student to be refused a place if they apply – though they do, of course, have to pass their phase 1 examinations.
We run two different schemes – a taught year, during which students select a combination of modules to study, or a year-long research project. The research project is by far the most popular option and less than 10% of the students who apply go for the taught option – though it suits some people, who want to study a particular subject in a lot more depth.
How many students take intercalated years?
It varies from year to year. At the moment there are 20 students and the highest number we have had has been 37 – that’s out of a total number of about 180 students on our 5-year course. The limitation on substantially increasing places would be finding more supervisors with research projects for the students to do.
How do students go about identifying supervisors to work with?
We contact academic staff in advance, asking them to put forward research outlines for projects students could do. These go into a booklet for the students. But we also tell the students that they can approach any of the academic staff about a project, if there is a subject that really interests them. There is no obligation on the academic staff to accept them, of course. But even with projects originating with supervisors, we encourage the students to get involved early in writing the project plans, so that they develop ownership of the research they will be working on for a year.
What makes for a successful intercalated year?
You’ve got to be interested in your topic and willing to work hard – this is not a soft option. Our students echo this – when they finish the year, they say they have worked hard but found it fulfilling.
We also try to support the students. As well as a project supervisor, each student has a mentor – someone in the department they are working in, but without a specific interest in their particular project. The students also do two internal poster presentations – to each other, research supervisors and the committee members - so we can check things are going OK and intervene if not. In October, we expect this exercise to help the students focus on what they are going to do. In March, we can tell how their results are going and they get some feedback on data analysis and presentation.
