Undergraduate

There are more than 2,000 undergraduates in the School of Medicine, attracted by our reputation for internationally competitive research and clinical expertise, with medical campuses across North and West London enabling placements in a wide range of high-quality children’s services in NHS hospitals, clinics, community facilities and primary care practices. 

Drawing on the exceptional talent across our Centre, our Faculty supports the emergence of graduates with a good understanding of clinical paediatrics and child health. 

We also provide opportunities for our students to engage with world-leading paediatric research groups, nurturing those with aptitude and talent, and growing the leaders of tomorrow. 

Current students undertake the core seven-week rotation in clinical paediatrics during their 5th Year, but many will have benefitted ahead of this from other opportunities that enable them to interact with children. For example, the innovative Follow My Footsteps course, starting in their 2nd Year, introduces self-selected students in pairs to a pregnant woman, who they follow over the next three years to observe and learn about child development and the NHS services that promote child health. 

We have a well-established, student-led Play Scheme that supports undergraduates across all the Years to volunteer out-of-hours including weekends to spend time with children and young people who are receiving in-patient care.  

A successful innovation has been run over three years as a pilot to explore longitudinal placements in primary care for one day each week through the 42 weeks of the 5th Year. Students are given their own cohort of patients including children with chronic conditions, for whom they take authentic responsibility. It is intended that this will be rolled out to all students on the new curriculum in their clinical years.  

In their 4th Year, many students undertake BSc projects with our paediatric research groups, including basic science, laboratory-based projects, clinical research studies, child public health projects and systematic reviews. Students may also undertake summer research projects supported through the undergraduate research opportunities programme (UROP), for which bursaries may be available.