University of Southampton Calendar 2012/13


University Calendar 2012/13 Section XI : Academic Regulations - Faculty of Medicine

Academic Unit	Medicine
Final Award	Master of Medical Sciences (Hons) classified with intermediate exit awards of Bachelor of Medical Sciences (Ordinary) Bachelor of Medical Sciences (Hons)
Programme(s)	Master of Medical Sciences (Hons)
Last modified	June 2010 Reviewed in July 2011; no changes made Reviewed in July 2012; no changes made

Reference should be made to the University's General Regulations found in Section IV and Section V (Higher Degree Regulations)of the University Calendar.

The Faculty has been granted an opt-out by the University’s Academic Standards and Quality Committee(ASQC) to Section IV, General Regulations – Progression, Determination and Classification of Results (see below). The following variations to the University regulations apply:

*Definitions*	The definitions used by the Faculty are as per the University regulations with the following additions/exceptions.
*Component*	Module of study/assessment to be passed in order to progress to the next year of the programme. Components may comprise of more then one element of assessment. A component is equivalent to the term “module” as referred to in the University regulations.
Element	Examination or assignment within a component.
Pass Mark	As per the University definition and may also be applied to an element of a component.
Average Mark	The mark obtained by taking the mean or weighted average of individual element marks (as required by the assessment regulations) contributing to the assessment of a component.
Year	The Faculty refers to Years in the following regulations. A Year is equivalent to the term Part as referred to in the University regulations.
Repeat	As per the University definition except MMedSc programme students will normally be required to repeat the year as an internal candidate as per the University Progression Regulations 2.13 Internal Repeat..
Board of Examiners	Within the Faculty of Medicine, progression decisions for the MMedSc Programme are made by the Undergraduate Student Progress Committee within the Faculty of Medicine. The Student Progress Committee is therefore the equivalent to the Board of Examiners when reference is made to progression in the University regulations for Special Considerations Paragraph 10.

Admissions

Admissions requirements will be as stated in the University’s General Regulations, the Programme Specifications and the University Prospectus.

Structure of Programme(s)

The Faculty follows the University General Regulations as laid down in the University Calendar, except where variations have been permitted for the MMedSc Programme. The structure of the programme is as per the University General Regulations and the Programme Specification.

University progression regulation 3.4 with the following addition:
Candidates may exceptionally be given conditional progression to the Final Year of the BM5 programme without satisfactory completion of all Year 4 clinical attachments with the condition that the attachments must be satisfactorily completed during the following year as a directed elective subject to the availability of placements and within the constraints of the elective period in the following year. Candidates who have conditionally progressed to the next year must satisfactorily complete the directed elective/s before they will be permitted to progress any further through the programme.

The Intercalated MMedSc programme of study is modularised. Candidates will take 55 ECTS (110 CATS) at NQF Level 6 and 65 ECTS (130 CATS) at level 7 by the end of the MMedSc programme. Core modules are as follows: in Year 1 the Library Based Project 1 and Research for Health & Medicine modules and in Year 2 the Library Based Project 2 and the Research Project module.

Progression

The Faculty follows the University’s regulations for progression as laid down in the University Calendar except where variations have been permitted for the MMedSc Programme.

Criteria for Progression

University progression regulation 4.1 with the following addition:
Progress from one year of the programme to the next will depend upon the successful completion of the appropriate examination and course work requirements, satisfactory completion of clinical and other practical work, and freedom from health, behavioural and conduct problems relevant to future employment as a medical practitioner.

Candidates who satisfactorily complete the MMedSc programme will normally be permitted to enrol on the Final Year of the BM5 Programme with the opportunity to be awarded a Bachelor of Medicine degree for satisfactory completion of BM5.

Candidates who satisfactorily complete Year 1 and who pass all core modules on Year 2 except for the MMedSc Research Project will normally be permitted to progress to BM Final Year provided their Research Project satisfies the requirements of the Bachelor of Medicine degree when assessed at NQF Level 6 and they have satisfactorily completed the required clinical attachments during Year 2 of the MMedSc.

Candidates who satisfactorily complete Year 1 and who pass all other modules in Year 2 but who fail the Journal Club module, will normally be permitted to progress to BM Final Year.

Subject to academic counselling, candidates who fail to satisfactorily complete Year 1 or Year 2 may be permitted to exit the MMedSc programme and enrol on BM5 Year 4.

University progression regulation 4.5 Repeat:
The MMedSc is an integrated Masters within the BM programme. The MMedSc programme duration must be considered within the context of the Faculty of Medicine’s overall BM5/6 programme maximum duration.

The Faculty of Medicine requirements for duration of the BM programmes mean that candidates are normally limited to two repeat years during their programme of study. The maximum duration of a student’s programme of study when undertaking the integrated MMedSc (Hons) programme is therefore normally:

	Study Duration Requirement	Study Duration Requirement with Intercalated MMedSc(Hons)
	BM5 - no more than 7 years	- no more than 8 years
	BM6 - no more than 8 years	- no more than 9 years

Assessment

Details of the assessment structure for the programme are held on the Faculty of Medicine website. Examination and Assessment Regulations are available within Student Handbooks and policy documents on the Faculty of Medicine website.

Award of Qualification(s)

Full details are given in the Faculty Handbook and Programme Specification.

To obtain the MMedSc Honours degree candidates must obtain a final overall mark of at least 40%, passes (40%) in a minimum of four of the taught option modules at NQF 6 in the first year and pass (40%) all core modules and achieve at least the qualifying mark (25%) in all the remaining modules included for classification as specified in the programme structure.

Students are eligible for the award of the following exit qualifications if they successfully complete a year of the Master of Medical Sciences programme but leave the programme, for whatever reason, before successful completion.

Subject to academic counselling, candidates who fail to satisfactorily complete Year 1 may be permitted to exit the MMedSc programme and enrol on BM5 Year 4 with the opportunity to achieve the award of BMedSc (Hons) for successful completion of Year 4.

Candidates who satisfactorily complete Year 1 and who pass all core modules on Year 2 except for the MMedSc Research Project will be eligible for the award of a classified BMedSc (Hons) provided their Research Project satisfies the requirements of the Bachelor of Medicine degree when assessed at NQF Level 6. Classification will be as per regulation 6.2 below.

Candidates who satisfactorily complete Year 1 and who pass all other modules in Year 2 but who fail the Journal Club module, will be eligible for the award of a classified BMedSc(Hons). Classification will be as per regulation 6.2 below.

AWARD	*EXIT POINT*	*CATS (ECTS) POINTS*
Certificate of Higher Education in Biomedical Sciences	Successful completion of BM5 Year 1	120 (60) level 4
Diploma of Higher Education in Biomedical Sciences	Successful completion of BM5 Year 2	120 (60) level 5
Bachelor Medical Sciences (Ordinary)	Successful completion of BM5 Year 3 including the BM Intermediate examination	120 (60) level 5 60 (30) level 6
Bachelor of Medical Sciences (Honours)	Successful completion of MMedSc Year 2 with Research Project assessed at Level 6 NQF.	60 (30) level 5 190 (95) level 6 50 (25) level 7
Master of Medical Sciences	Successful completion of MMedSc	60 (30) level 5 110 (55) level 6 130 (65) level 7

Placements/Study Abroad/Exchange/Fieldwork

6.1	The Faculty follows the University regulations on classification with the following approved variation.
6.2	Weighting of Parts (Years) A weighting of 1:2 shall be used for the two years of the integrated Masters programme. This is in addition to weighting by credit points. Performance in Years 1 to 3 of the BM5 Programme will not be included for classification.

Other

7.1	Any other specific requirements for this programme are included in programme specifications, assessment regulations and student handbooks on the Faculty of Medicine website.
7.2	These regulations apply for the year in which the student is registered and may be revised during the student's period of registration on a programme in accordance with the procedures approved by Senate.