Do medical schools and traditional universities prefer traditional biology?

Salters-Nuffield Advanced Biology students have successfully secured places in medical schools at top universities.

There have been reports from some centres that there is an increase in the number of students applying for medicine and related subjects. There are no reports that they have had difficulties at interview. We have had reports from teachers that their students found it useful to have done SNAB because they had a lot to talk about in their interviews.

When we started the pilot we sent information about the course to medical school (and biology departments) admission tutors. We visited the University of Liverpool medical school, and their admissions tutor was very positive about the SNAB approach. They, like many other medical schools, are using a case-study based approach to teaching and learning, with students taking a more independent role in the process. The Salters-Nuffield Advanced Biology course is useful preparation for this.

Our Advisory Committee has a very strong Oxbridge representation (including Professor Sir Tom Blundell from Cambridge and Professor Kay Davies from Oxford). Their influence has helped to ensure that our course is sufficiently rigorous for able students.