Newcastle University: Important Information for Medicine Applicants, Exercises of Medicine

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Advice and information for applicants holding an offer for

Medicine with Newcastle University

Contents

• Page |
• Introduction
• Keeping us up to date
• Paperwork before you arrive
• Equipment and books for the course
• Welcome and Registration
• Health Issues and Health Questionnaire
• Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS)
• Fitness to Practise
• Accommodation
• Finance
• Waiting for examination results
• Under the age of 18 years
• General Information
• Contact Information

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1. Keeping us up to date It is extremely important that you keep us up to date on where we can contact you throughout the admission cycle. For all correspondence Newcastle University will always use the contact information and email address we receive from UCAS.

Ways in which you can inform us of changes to your contact details:  If you change your contact details or address through the UCAS system this should be automatically updated to our electronic admissions system.

 If you wish to be sure we have received any changes to your contact details you can also contact us direct at Newcastle University, School of Medical Education, Medical Student Office, Framlington Place, Newcastle NE2 4HH. Or you can email us on : medic.ugadmin@ncl.ac.uk Please quote your UCAS number in all correspondence

Common mistakes applicants make:  Many applicants use their school email address as the contact. This causes difficulties when our University sends emails during school holidays or just before registration in August, which is after you have left school.

 Many applicants forget to check their school emails regularly. We often contact applicants by email as a first contact for an interview or to request additional information to support your application.

 Some applicants use their school address as their main contact address. If you need to do this, remember to also provide your home address details.

Remember it is your responsibility to ensure the universities you have applied to have up to date information regarding your contact details.

 Going on holiday?

We do understand that you have a long summer break after your exams and many of you take this opportunity to travel widely before your university course begins. This can mean that you are away from your main contact address for a substantial length of time.

What can you do?  If possible make sure that you regularly check the email address you provided on your UCAS application.

 Ask a relative to check your post and contact you if necessary.

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2. Paperwork before you arrive As part of the admission process for medicine we need to certify and obtain lots of information from our applicants. The following information provides you with a guide on what we might ask for and what we may provide.

Completed examination certificates When you attended your interview for medicine you may have brought with you your original certificates for the completed ‘A’ level; International Baccalaureate; degree examinations you listed on your UCAS form as completed. If you did not, you will need to send the originals to us. You may wish to consider sending your certificates recorded delivery to ensure they are safely delivered. Unfortunately, we do not accept copies and we will return the certificates by recorded delivery. (contact details on page 11 ) If you are yet to complete your ‘A’ levels and your results are not due until August, you do not need to do anything. We will receive these results direct from UCAS. (See Waiting for Examination Results on page 10 )

Immigration and International Students If you require a Certificate Acceptance for Study (CAS) we will contact you once you become unconditional/firm (UF) to request any documents we need and complete the CAS.

 We can provide a CAS number up to 6 months before the start date of the course. (once UF)

 The CAS number can only be used by you to support your visa application within the 3 months before the start of the course.

 Ensure that the passport you have is in date and is the one that will be provided to us for your CAS. If you change your passport after the CAS has been issued your CAS will be invalid

3. Equipment and Books for the Course

 We do not recommend that students buy equipment, such as stethoscopes, before arriving at the Medical School.

 We do not recommend buying any books before you arrive at the Medical School. You may find that many of our existing students will be selling their copies of text books. We also suggest that you make full use of the medical library (Walton) and its vast resources.

4. Welcome and Registration

University Welcome pack The University will send you a welcome pack once your offer changes to UF. The packs start going out to applicants during August. As the Accelerated Course (A101 4 years) students start their course earlier, they may receive their packs in early August, but they must be UF before the pack is sent out.

Registration The Medical Student Office will send you a registration pack in August. This pack will include details on where and when you need to meet on your first day of term.

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 Before you start the course our Occupational Health provider will send you a Health Questionnaire to complete and return. This must be completed and returned to the contact details on the document within the timeline indicated in your offer.

 Some applicants may receive a conditional offer which includes an Occupational Health Assessment. This assessment is designed to help us ensure that applicants are not only able to undertake the rigours of the MBBS programme, especially with respect to working with patients in the clinical setting, and meet its outcomes in line with the statutory requirements of the General Medical Council as defined in ‘Tomorrow’s Doctors’ 2009, but to also ensure that we provide any reasonable support necessary.

 Our Occupational Health Assessment provider will contact the applicant to make arrangements for this to take place. This assessment must be successfully completed before an offer can move from Conditional to Unconditional and will need to be completed within any timeline mentioned in your offer.

 Early in the course students will be required to be screened for Hepatitis B; Hepatitis C and HIV. All aspects of a student’s medical record will be bound by the same duty of confidentiality as for any doctor-patient interaction and informed by the same ethical guidance.

 In order to ensure as many students as possible are protected by the beginning of the course, we suggest that for their own protection applicants commence an immunisation programme for Hepatitis B. The process for this immunisation requires three injections over six months. Your GP should be able to start this course of immunisation, but you should be aware they may charge for this service.

6. Disclosure and Barring Service All MBBS students as part of the process of ensuring students are ‘fit to practise’ undergo a Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) Enhanced Disclosure check. This type of disclosure is designed to check the background of individuals who will have a high degree of contact with children or vulnerable adults. All medical students in the country are required to undergo a DBS check on entry to Stage 1 and here in Newcastle our NHS Trusts require an additional check prior to the start of the Final Year, and we reserve the right to discontinue your studies on receipt of an unsatisfactory disclosure.

 Once your application becomes Unconditional/Firm you will be sent an email with a link to our online DBS application process. You must follow the instructions and submit your details.  Once you start the course you will be required to attend a DBS surgery where you must bring the original documents you noted as evidence when submitting the online DBS application.  This information will be checked against your application and submitted.

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 All UK students will need to complete the DBS process as mentioned above and if you have spent a considerable amount of time outside the UK you may need to obtain a ‘Letter of good conduct’ from the country you have been living in. Please contact the Medical Student Office if you are unsure.  International students must bring to this surgery a recent (letter not to be dated more than 3 months before registration) ‘Letter of good conduct’ obtained from the relevant police or government office in their home country.  EU students must bring to this surgery a recent (letter not to be dated more than 3 months before registration) ‘Letter of good conduct’ obtained from the relevant police or government office in their home country. If you have been living in the UK you may also be required to complete an Enhanced DBS application.

7. Fitness to Practise In the interests of patient and public safety, we wish to share some of the information provided in your application form with the Medical Schools Council in order to verify your fitness to practise. If a fitness to practise finding is made against you in the future, this information and a copy of the decision against you will also be stored on the database maintained by the Medical Schools Council. The database is accessible only to other medical schools in the UK and the General Medical Council. It is used only for proper fitness to practise purposes to protect patients and the public. Any offer made by us will be conditional on you having disclosed any previous fitness to practise findings against you, and your consent being given to this use of information. Your consent will be obtained through your signature on the Declaration Form you completed at interview. You have a right of access to any information held about you on the database to correct any errors. If you wish to exercise the right, please contact the Policy Advisor at the Medical Schools Council. 8. Accommodation (subject to change, always check our web site) If you firmly accept an offer for our medicine programme you will be contacted about accommodation at Newcastle University in June. You will be asked to consider the options available ( see http://www.ncl.ac.uk/accommodation/students/accommodation/types.htm ). You will also be asked to complete an online accommodation application.

During your first year of study you are guaranteed a place in University-owned or Managed Partnership accommodation, provided you:

 have accepted our offer of a place at Newcastle as your firm-choice University before 30 June, and  are coming alone to the University for the full academic year, and  live in an area from which it would be unreasonable to commute to the University by public transport, and  have completed the online Accommodation Application by 30 June of your year of entry.

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Students Awards Agency for Scotland www.student-support-saas.gov.uk/ Department for Employment and Learning, Northern Ireland www.delnigov.uk NHS Wales Student Award Unit www.wales.nhs.uk/sitesplus/829/page/

10. Waiting for examination results Conditional/Firm If you are waiting for your academic results to be announced in August your offer will not change from Conditional to Unconditional until we have considered all of the results published at this time. This is an extremely busy time in the Medical Student Office so please bear this in mind and allow us some time to process the decisions on the ‘A’ level results we receive through UCAS.

If you are requesting that your ‘A’ level is remarked you will need to contact the Medical Student Office to receive guidance on the position of your offer. We do require your school to indicate their support in this process by sending us a fax or email. Fax: 0191 2226521 Email: mbbs.admission@ncl.ac.uk

If you are still awaiting confirmation of your Degree classification you must ensure that you provide official confirmation of your result by the week ‘A’ level results are announced. We understand that you will not have your certificate, but you will need to supply us with a letter from the Registry or Student Records department at your current University.

Failure to provide official notification of your results in time for ‘A’ level week may result in the offer decision being withdrawn as you would not have met the necessary conditions.

11. Under the age of 18 years If you are under 18 years of age on the day of registration you should have received an under 18 years contract for your parent or guardian to sign. This is to ensure that any contracts you enter into with the University are guaranteed and legal. 12. General Information Data Protection Newcastle University holds and uses personal student data which comes under the Data Protection Act. As part of your S3P online registration process you will be asked to read and accept a statement regarding the holding and use of this information.

Student Support We are committed to the principle of equal treatment of disabled persons and the proper application of the Disability Discrimination Act. We recommend those students who require the support of our Student Wellbeing Service should visit http://www.ncl.ac.uk/students/wellbeing/about/ to obtain information on the support we provide.

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Smoking Newcastle University has a ‘No Smoking on campus’ policy, this means that we do not allow any smoking on our campus, this includes outside our buildings.

13. Contacts Address for all correspondence: Newcastle University Faculty of Medical Sciences Medical Student Office Framlington Place Newcastle NE2 4HH Telephone: 0191 2087005

General Enquiries medic.ugadmin@ncl.ac.uk Enquiries relating to organised interviews mbbs.interviews@ncl.ac.uk All other enquiries mbbs.admissions@ncl.ac.uk

Senior MBBS Support Officer Mrs N Dunn (^) Nicola.dunn@ncl.ac.uk MBBS Support Officer Miss D Sutherland (^) Danielle.sutherland.ac.uk MBBS Administrator Mrs D Smith Dianorah.smith@ncl.ac.uk Sub Dean Recruitment and Admissions Dr P Paes All correspondence via MBBS Administrator