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Medical sciences teaching

In this section

Oxford University is currently the top university for medicine in the world in the Times Higher Education World University Rankings. Oxford Population Health (the Nuffield Department of Population Health, University of Oxford) is responsible for all medical sciences teaching on population health, medical ethics and law. We teach and assess epidemiology and public health and support the medical school in meeting the national requirement to train medical professionals in these disciplines.  

Over a typical academic year, we teach over 400 medical students at various stages of their training. We aim to provide an understanding of the basis for the public health approach (sociology, social determinants of health, policy making), the scientific methods it uses (epidemiology, statistics, health economics, evidence based medicine) and clinically relevant approaches to health improvement and disease prevention (health promotion, screening, health protection and occupational health). Our teaching includes large class lectures, seminars, small groups teaching and tutorials.  

POPULATION HEALTH CURRICULUM

Oxford offers medical sciences courses to students entering as undergraduates (standard entry six-year duration) and those who are already graduates (graduate entry four-year duration). Population Health teaching is delivered in all years of both courses. [Click on the diagram to view it full screen.]

Clinical teaching diagram

standard entry medicine: pre clinical

The standard Oxford medical course has separate pre-clinical (years 1-3) and clinical (years 4-6) components. Students gain a comprehensive grounding in the sciences underpinning medicine, before applying that scientific foundation in the clinical setting. 

  • Sociology: a series of lectures delivered in Hilary Term of the first year, including social class, ethnicity, ageing and illness behaviour. 
  • Population and Social Research Methods: a course planned for 2025 introducing quantitative and qualitative methods of descriptive and analytic research design and current approaches to causal inference. 
  • Final Honours School (FHS): all standard entry students undertake a research project in their final pre-clinical year, and can choose to study a population health-based research project with a supervisor in Oxford Population Health.  

graduate entry medicine (accelerated medical degree)

The graduate entry medicine programme is an accelerated medical degree for graduates of specific science degrees. The four-year course leads to the Bachelor of Medicine and Surgery (BMBCh). 

  • Behavioural Sciences: a series of seminars threaded throughout the graduate entry year 1 (GE1) course.
  • Public Health: a series of seminars on health inequalities and levels of prevention illustrated by public health topics. 
  • Academic Special Interest project: all graduate medical students complete a literature review in their first year, and a research project in their second year. Students can choose to study a population health-based project with an Oxford Population Health supervisor.  

clinical medicine (merged course)

Standard entry and graduate entry streams are merged for most of the three years of clinical training leading to finals. Public health, epidemiology and occupational medicine are covered in the first two years and examined as part of the Medical Licensing Assessment. In the final year of training, students may opt to take a special study module. 

  • Public Health: a series of lectures on public health policy and services, public health roles in clinical practice, and Occupational Health. 
  • Epidemiology: epidemiological research designs and measurements. 
  • Special study modules (SSMs): an option for students to work on a short population health research project for two to three weeks and/or work on a placement within Public Health practice. 

Clinical Teaching Team