Hull York Medical School

Hull York Medical School (flickr: CARLOS62 (Carl Spencer))

History: The Hull York Medical School is a partnership between the Universities of Hull and York, and the NHS. The first students arrived in September 2003.

Address: For the first two years of the programme, half of HYMS students are based in Hull and half in York. The remaining three years involve a cycle of placements in a variety of clinical settings across North and East Yorkshire and Northern Lincolnshire.

Ambience: Both universities are campus-based and are very close to their city centres. HYMS students are well integrated with other students in their accommodation and social facilities. HYMS achieves a unified feel, with HYMS students sharing lectures, thanks to whole school events, video-links and staff working on both campuses.

Who's the boss? Professor Tony Kendrick is dean. He has published work on the primary care of depression, schizophrenia, and eating disorders.

Prospectus: 0870 120 2323, find it online here and follow @HYMSMBBS.

UCAS code: H75

What you need to know

Easy to get into? In a word, no. Students ideally need three As at A-level, including Biology and Chemistry. You also need a fourth subject at grade B for AS level, and grade A English language and maths at GCSE. All applicants must take the UK Clinical Aptitude Test as well.

Vital statistics: 700 undergraduate medical students at any one time, welcoming 140 new students every year. Some 1,750 members of staff, including full-time and part-time clinical placement tutors, staff from other universities and staff from the NHS, contributing occasional lectures and short courses.

Added value: Alongside the traditional medical curriculum, students go out on placements in hospital, community and primary care settings very early on. In the final year, students work as an integrated member of a health care team, looking after four or five patients. They also have a two-week placement on a multi-professional training ward. It is the only medical school that actively provides up to 50 per cent of students’ clinical experience in primary and community care settings.

Teaching: HYMS is ranked 9th out of 30 medical schools according to 2011’s National Student Survey.

Research: Placed 12th out of 30 medical schools in the Research Assessment Exercise.

Any accommodation? Hull offers many different types of accommodation, including catered halls of residence, self-catering on-campus flats, and self-catering university-owned student houses. The university recommends that student houses or the Taylor Court flats are best suited to HYMS students’ needs, due to their location and longer contract lengths, which fit HYMS’ longer terms. Costs are between £59 and £142 per week.

York university accommodation is divided between the seven undergraduate colleges and each student is allocated to one of these. All rooms are single and a third of them have en-suite facilities. Colleges have a range of café bars and dining rooms, and most have basic kitchen facilities or an area for preparing snacks, allowing students a mixture of catered and self-catered. Costs are between £90and £149.10 per week.

Cheap to live there? Depends where you live. Rents are very low in Hull, where you can find a room in a shared house for as little as £55 per week. In York, you're looking more at around £75.

Transport links: Good train services to both cities via the East Coast mainline from London to Edinburgh. Hull is reached via the M62 and M18; York from the A1 and M1 via the A64. Easy access to Leeds/Bradford, Manchester and Humberside airports, and daily ferry services to mainland Europe from Hull. York and Hull are well-known cycling cities.

Fees: £9,000 per year on average for full-time home and EU undergrads starting in 2013.

Bursaries: Students may be entitled to a £1,500 per year HYMS bursary for the first two years of their course, if their annual family income is less than £25,000. A further £3,000 is then offered for the 3, 4 and 5 years combined. In the 5 year, students may have their tuition fees paid for by the NHS.

The fun stuff

Nightlife: Hull University has its own nightclub, Asylum. York is well known for its large number of good bars, pubs and restaurants but is a bit sparse for nightclubs, with only three.

Sporting reputation: Not entered independently into the BUCS league, but there are plenty of sporting facilities at Hull and York for students to make use of.

Glittering alumni: None as yet.