2. British mode
Students in the UK apply to
university after high school, and after 3 years of general undergraduate
study they go on to medical school for 4 years of medical study. Or they
enter university after high school for 2 years of pre-clinical study
followed by 2-3 years of clinical medicine. The final degree is the
Bachelor of Medicine and Surgery
(MBBS), which is a requirement for physician registration. In the UK,
there are medical masters and doctoral degrees, but they are not
directly linked to the practice of medicine. After obtaining the MBBS,
medical students have to go through several stages of post-graduate
medical education, including pre-registration residency, senior
residency, chief residency and senior chief residency [26]. In the
chief residency stage, physicians can apply for the doctoral degree,
which is awarded after a period of full-time research in a research
position with corresponding results; surgeons can obtain a master’s
degree after 1 to 1.5 years of full-time research work. The master’s and
doctoral degrees are not necessarily linked to post-graduate education,
but chief residents may not be promoted to senior chief resident until
obtaining master’s or doctoral degrees [27].