• Question: My main aim is to be a doctor, but I definitely want to carry on with Biology, do you think that post-grad degrees are useful, and what doors do they open for careers in science?

    Asked by Dom Smith to Ceri, Marikka, Matt, Rob, Sally on 7 Nov 2014.
    • Photo: Sally Cutler

      Sally Cutler answered on 7 Nov 2014:

      Hi Dom,
      If to be a doctor is your aim try for this, and if you are unsuccessful in getting in, then do a biology related degree such as biomedical science and try for medicine from this. Post-graduate degrees are always valuable and can be done either as a scientist or as a doctor (MRCPath). Even after your official academic qualifications you will probably need to do some form of continuing professional development (CPD) as you need to keep up to date with emerging topics in your field. Good luck!

    • Photo: Ceri Dare

      Ceri Dare answered on 7 Nov 2014:

      Well, because of the way the funding works, if you can do your medical degree first to become a doctor, this will cost you a lot less than if you do a Biology degree first then a medical degree. This website might help you find out more: http://www.money4medstudents.org/england Unfortunately getting funding for any post-graduate degrees at all is getting increasingly difficult.

      The person I work most with is a medical doctor who has just started his specialist training, and is doing something called a ‘clinical academic fellowship’, which is where he can spend part of his time treating patients, and part of his time doing research, working with me on the maths of how superbugs spread.

      My post-graduate Masters in Public Health has helped me a lot – I couldn’t do my current job without it. I spent two years doing it part-time. I learned about everything from cell biology to statistics to how to organise the NHS. Lots of the people on my Masters course were medical doctors and other health care professionals who wanted to specialise in public health, but there were all sorts of people – one person had even done her first degree in History!

      If you want to work in science, you have to keep learning things all the time. The senior Consultant who runs the department I work in still goes on lots of training courses. In the few months since starting my new job, I have had to learn about everything from how to wash my hands very thoroughly, to how to keep medical records safe, and lots about how bacteria work because I hadn’t studied bacteria before.

    • Photo: Robert Hampson

      Robert Hampson answered on 10 Nov 2014:

      Your question isn’t quite clear as to what you’re really asking about.

      There are two routes to be a medical doctor:
      1) Undergraduate medical course: Start at 18, jump straight in with medical training, this will contain a humongous amount of human biology, you definitely won’t stop doing biology with this course!
      2) Post-graduate medicine: Start after a different undergraduate degree, generally more expensive, bit more flexible (e.g. after undergraduate you could decide you don’t want to be a doctor after all), takes longer to qualify.

      Many medical doctors also become scientists, there are many Postgraduate Masters courses (taught with lectures to enhance the students knowledge of a specific area) or PhD (doctorate in philosophy – like doctor in research) programmes for medical doctors and opportunities for them to do research and further learning/education (I believe it is generally encouraged in the NHS).

    • Photo: Marikka Beecroft

      Marikka Beecroft answered on 11 Nov 2014:

      Postgraduate degrees are helpful as they give you more information than what you get in your undergraduate degree and also more experience in the skills you need in industry or academia. I know some one who did a post-graduate degree after his medicine and he hasn’t regretted it. In fact he thinks it’s giving him a better breadth of knowledge and skill that he can implement into his work.

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