Doctor of Medicine 2025-26

Academic Regulations: Faculty of Medicine

School	Medicine
Final Award	Doctor of Medicine (DM) With exit awards of: Master of Philosophy (MPhil)
Programme(s)	Doctor of Medicine
Last modified	April 2025

The Academic Regulations apply to and regulate the programme(s) listed above.

On occasion, programmes can be exempted from one or more of the clauses in the Regulations; one or more of the clauses can be varied; and programmes can impose additional requirements.

Exemptions are characterised by the omission of the relevant clause.
Variations are characterised by the replacement of the clause with alternative wording.
Additions are characterised by requirements in addition to those detailed in the Academic regulations.

The programmes listed have approval from the Academic Quality and Standards Subcommittee for the exemptions and/or variations and/or additions to the regulations noted below.

Regulations for Research Degrees		Exemption/Variation/Addition
3. Candidature
3.5	A research student in candidature for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy may be permitted, at any time prior to the submission of the thesis, to transfer to a programme leading to the degree of Master of Philosophy. The period spent in candidature up to the point of transfer will be counted towards the period of candidature required for the degree to which the transfer is made. Details of the permission required to transfer for other programmes will be detailed in the Academic Regulations.	Variation A research student in candidature for the degree of Doctor of Medicine may be permitted, at any time prior to the submission of the thesis, to transfer to a programme leading to the degree of Master of Philosophy. A research student registered for the degree of Doctor of Medicine may apply to transfer to the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, at the time of their second (confirmation) progression review. The transfer should be explicitly discussed and agreed by the assessors of the confirmation review. The period spent in candidature up to the point of transfer will be counted towards the period of candidature for the degree to which the transfer is made.
2. Admission
2.2	Applicants for a research degree shall hold an undergraduate degree or Master’s degree in a suitable subject of any approved higher education institution or whatever award/range of experience is deemed equivalent by the Faculty Graduate School Subcommittee using the selection procedures specified in section 6 of the Code of Practice (Selection and Admission of Research Students: Selection procedures) and the guidance on recognition of prior [experiential/certificated] learning as set out in the Recognition of Prior Learning Policy. Applications from individuals with other non-standard qualifications must be approved by the Associate Dean (Education) on a case-by-case basis. Applicants may be admitted on transfer from another higher education institution according to the guidelines set out in section 6 of the Code of Practice (Selection and Admission of Research Students: Transferring from another institution).	Addition Candidates must be registered as a Doctor with the General Medical Council for of the United Kingdom, and must have held their medical qualification for at least three years by the date of submission of the thesis. In addition, candidates must be employed at the commencement of their studies in appropriate clinical or scientific work within the Wessex Deanery area, or be undertaking a research project closely involving the University of 天发娱乐棋牌_天发娱乐APP-官网\|下载. Alternative Submission for the Degree Exceptionally, candidates may apply for the award of the DM degree without having pursued a programme of registered study, as follows: (a) 天发娱乐棋牌_天发娱乐APP-官网\|下载 graduates not employed within the Wessex Deanery area, nor undertaking a research project closely involving the University of 天发娱乐棋牌_天发娱乐APP-官网\|下载, may register as a student of the University for a DM degree if they can provide evidence that they have tried unsuccessfully to submit for the degree at their local university. Such students will undertake a period of supervised research in their home institution following the requirements of the University of 天发娱乐棋牌_天发娱乐APP-官网\|下载 Regulations for Research Degrees. (b) Any graduates who hold a Consultant or equivalent position, or who work in General Practice and who are employed in appropriate clinical or scientific work within the Wessex Deanery area or are undertaking a research project closely involving the University of 天发娱乐棋牌_天发娱乐APP-官网\|下载, may apply for the award of the degree by submission of published works. Such works should be broadly comparable to a DM thesis, as specified below. The normal requirement would be a minimum of four peer-reviewed papers in respected journals which form a coherent body of work. (i) The published material should be bound together with an abstract and a supporting statement indicating the candidate's aims, the nature of the research, and the contributions to it of the works submitted. Where published papers from different sources are included, the candidate must provide a separate introduction which links the material and demonstrates the nature and extent of his/her their original contribution. If the published work is already in book form, the abstract and supporting statement must be bound. (ii) If the candidate incorporates material which has been produced in collaboration with others, a written statement should be included indicating the share the candidate personally took in the work. (iii) Such candidates will not be allocated a supervisor but will be allocated an academic mentor who will provide informal guidance during the preparation of the candidate's thesis.

Code of Practice for Research Degree Candidature and Supervision

Section 3: The Higher Degrees of Master of Philosophy (MPhil) and Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

The MPhil and PhD are higher degrees involving a programme of research training and supervision and leading to the production of a thesis or, in the case of research students in the disciplines listed inn section 21 of this Code (Production and Submission of the Thesis: Alternative formats of thesis submission), the production of a body of work as appropriate to the discipline completed in conjunction with a critical written component. The MPhil and PhD are two separate, distinct awards with the MPhil differing from the PhD in terms of the scope of study required and the extent of the original personal contribution to knowledge. Section 4 of this Code (The Difference between Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) and Master of Philosophy (MPhil) provides more details of the levels of attainment required for the MPhil and for the PhD.

Addition

The degree of Doctor of Medicine denotes high professional standing and competence as evidenced by high quality clinically orientated or biomedical research. Candidates mut provide evidence that they have mastered a specific field within the broad remit of clinical medicine or surgery, or more basic science as it relates to those areas. The scientific and research methods employed by the candidate mut be validated. The work should be of a quantity and standard that might reasonably be expected from a candidate who has spent at least two years in part-time research. Candidates will be expected to demonstrate they have met the criteria expected of other doctoral level degrees as set out in Section 4 of this Code.

Section 18: Progression Monitoring and Reviews (paragraph 18.19)

Summary of timings of progression reviews for research students who enrolled on their doctoral studies on or after 1 August 2016 (part-time programmes)³
	First Attempt		Second Attempt
	Submission window	Decision deadline	Submission window	Decision deadline
First Progression Review	15-20 months	Before the end of month 21	21-24 months	Before the end of month 24
Second Progression Review (Confirmation)	30-41 months	Before the end of month 42	42-47 months	Before the end of month 48
Third Progression Review	61-65 months	Before the end of month 66	66-71 months	Before the end of month 72

3 These timings may be adjusted on a pro-rata basis for research students registered on non-standard research programmes where other duties are a formal part of the programme; for example, the Clinical Doctorate Research Fellowship scheme or the Mayflower Scholarship scheme.

Variation

Research students enrolled on the DM programme will follow the progression review timelines for full-time doctoral students as published in the Code of Practice for Research Degree Candidature and Supervision:

Summary of timings of progression reviews for research students who enrolled on their doctoral studies on or after 1 August 2016 (full-time programmes)
	First Attempt		Second Attempt
	Submission window	Decision deadline	Submission window	Decision deadline
First Progression Review	7-9 months	Before the end of month 10	10-11 months	Before the end of month 12
Second Progression Review (Confirmation)	18-20 months	Before the end of month 21	21-23 months	Before the end of month 24
Third Progression Review	30-32 months	Before the end of month 33	33-35 months	Before the end of month 36

These regulations should be read in conjunction with the Doctoral Programme Profile.

Disclaimer

As a research-led University, we undertake a continuous review of our programmes to ensure quality enhancement and to manage our resources. As a result, these regulations may be revised during a student’s period of registration, however, any revision will be balanced against the requirement that the student should receive the educational service expected. Please read our Disclaimer to see why, when and how changes may be made to a student’s programme.