Your complete guide to a PhD in Medicine

Everything you need to know about studying a PhD in Medicine

part of Medicine & Health

What is Medicine?

Medicine is a rigorous and rewarding field dedicated to the understanding, diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of illness and disease. It's a broad discipline that covers the sciences, research, and direct patient care to improve health outcomes in individuals and communities.

Medicine Specialisations

Medicine offers a multitude of specialisations for you to explore based on your interests and career goals. The most common specialisation in Medicine includes:

  • General Practice,
  • Surgery,
  • Paediatrics,
  • Psychiatry,
  • Obstetrics and Gynaecology.

Both Bachelor's (undergraduate medical programmes) and postgraduate degrees (for specialisations) are available in this discipline.

What will you learn during a Medicine programme?

During a Medicine programme, you'll learn a vast range of medical knowledge and skills. Here's what you'll learn:

  • Comprehensive knowledge of human biology, including anatomy, physiology, and biochemistry,
  • Understanding of diseases, their causes, symptoms, and treatments,
  • Skills in clinical examination, diagnosis, and patient management,
  • Medical ethics, professionalism, and communication skills.
  • Critical thinking and research skills

Courses you'll likely take include:

  • Human Anatomy and Physiology: Detailed study of the human body and its functions.
  • Pathology: Understanding the causes and effects of diseases.
  • Clinical Skills: Developing practical skills for patient care, including diagnosis and management.
  • Medical Ethics: Learning the ethical and professional standards of medical practice.
  • Clinical Placements: Gaining hands-on experience in various medical settings.

Medicine is a good degree for those who are passionate about science, dedicated to serving others, and have a high degree of perseverance. The skills you get from Medicine courses are invaluable and highly respected, making medicine a rewarding career choice.

Skills required for a degree in Medicine

The Medicine degree requirements involve a strong academic background in science, excellent problem-solving abilities, good communication skills, empathy, and a willingness to commit to lifelong learning.

What can you do with a Medicine degree?

A Medicine degree opens up a wide array of career opportunities primarily focused on healthcare. The jobs you can get with a Medicine degree include:

  • Doctor (General Practitioner or Specialist),
  • Surgeon,
  • Psychiatrist,
  • Medical Researcher,
  • Medical Lecturer.

After completing a Bachelor's degree in Medicine (which is typically longer than traditional undergraduate degrees), you'll need to undertake additional training and examinations to become a licensed doctor. Further, specialisation through a Master's degree or a residency programme can lead to advanced roles in specific areas of medicine. So, is a Medicine degree worth it? Absolutely! If you're driven by a desire to help others and make a real difference in people's lives, a degree in Medicine can be an incredibly fulfilling choice.

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View all PhDs in Medicine. Keep in mind you can also study an online PhDs in Medicine.

Interesting programmes for you

Best Universities for Medicine on PhDPortal

Universities Location U.S. News & World Report Ranking (2018)
Harvard University Cambridge, United States 1
University of California, San Francisco San Francisco, United States 2
Johns Hopkins University Baltimore, United States 3
Washington University in St. Louis Saint Louis, United States 4
Yale University New Haven, United States 5
Rockefeller University New York City, United States 6
University of Oxford Oxford, United Kingdom 6
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Cambridge, United States 8
University of Pennsylvania Philadelphia, United States 9
University of Washington Seattle, United States 10
Imperial College London London, United Kingdom 11
Stanford University Stanford, United States 12
Melbourne Business School Melbourne, Australia 13
UCL London, United Kingdom 14
Karolinska Institute Stockholm, Sweden 15
Ludwig-Maximilians-University (LMU) Munich München, Germany 16
Emory University Atlanta, United States 17
Columbia University New York City, United States 18
University of Zurich Zürich, Switzerland 18
Duke University Durham, United States 20
University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) Los Angeles, United States 21
University of North Carolina Chapel Hill Chapel Hill, United States 21
University of California, San Diego San Diego, United States 23
London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine London, United Kingdom 24
Osaka University Osaka-shi, Japan 25
Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai Manhattan, United States 26
Monash University Clayton, Australia 27
Sorbonne University Paris, France 28
University of Chicago Chicago, United States 29
University of Amsterdam Amsterdam, Netherlands 30
Cornell University Ithaca, United States 31
University of Cambridge Cambridge, United Kingdom 32
New York University New York City, United States 33
University of Toronto Pickering, Canada 33
The University of Edinburgh Edinburgh, United Kingdom 35
University of Minnesota Twin Cities Minneapolis, United States 36
Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin Berlin, Germany 37
University of Basel Basel, Switzerland 38
The University of Tokyo Tokyo, Japan 38
Erasmus University Rotterdam Rotterdam, Netherlands 40
University of Paris Paris, France 41
University of Bonn Bonn, Germany 42
The University of Manchester Manchester, United Kingdom 42
University of Michigan Ann Arbor, United States 42
University of Copenhagen Copenhagen, Denmark 45
Ghent University Ledeberg, Belgium 46
University of Pittsburgh Pittsburgh, United States 46
King's College London London, United Kingdom 48
Humboldt University Berlin Berlin, Germany 49
The University of Alabama at Birmingham Birmingham, United States 49
Utrecht University Utrecht, Netherlands 49
University of Cape Town Cape Town, South Africa 52
McGill University Montréal, Canada 53
Radboud University Nijmegen - Summer School Nijmegen, Netherlands 54
University of New South Wales Sydney, Australia 55
University of Barcelona Barcelona, Spain 56
University of California, Berkeley Berkeley, United States 57
Case Western Reserve University Cleveland, United States 58
Freie Universität Berlin Berlin Steglitz, Germany 58
University of Geneva Genève, Switzerland 58
University of Queensland Saint Lucia, Australia 61
University of Maryland Baltimore Baltimore, United States 62
Baylor College of Medicine Houston, United States 63
Technical University of Munich München, Germany 63
Vanderbilt University Nashville, United States 63
Aix-Marseille University Marseille, France 66
Leiden University Leiden, Netherlands 67
University of Freiburg Freiburg, Germany 68
Trinity College Dublin Dublin, Ireland 69
University of Sydney Sydney, Australia 70
University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center Dallas, United States 70
National University of Singapore Singapore, Singapore 72
Northwestern University Evanston, United States 72
University of Lausanne Lausanne, Switzerland 72
Hannover Medical School Hannover, Germany 75
Kyoto University Kyoto, Japan 76
University of Massachusetts Medical School - Worcester Worcester, United States 77
University of British Columbia Vancouver, Canada 78
University of Wisconsin Madison Madison, United States 79
Yeshiva University New York City, United States 79
University of Bern Bern, Switzerland 81
Medical University of Vienna Vienna, Austria 82
KU Leuven Brussels, Belgium 83
Heidelberg University Heidelberg, Germany 84
University of Sao Paulo São Paulo, Brazil 85
The University of Milan Sesto San Giovanni, Italy 86
Mahidol University Sam Phran, Thailand 87
University of Southampton Southampton, United Kingdom 88
University of Manitoba Winnipeg, Canada 89
The Ohio State University Upper Arlington, United States 90
University of Glasgow Glasgow, United Kingdom 90
University of Liverpool Liverpool, United Kingdom 92
Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam Amsterdam, Netherlands 93
Cardiff University Cardiff, United Kingdom 94
Tel Aviv University Tel Aviv Yaffo, Israel 95
University of Cologne Köln, Germany 96
University of Virginia Charlottesville, United States 97
Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz Mainz, Germany 98
University of Oslo Oslo, Norway 99
University of Birmingham Birmingham, United Kingdom 100
University of Tübingen Tübingen, Germany 101
University of Cincinnati Cincinnati, United States 102
University of California, Davis Davis, United States 103
University of Calgary Calgary, Canada 104
Tufts University Medford, United States 105
University of Montpellier Montpellier, France 106
Boston University Boston, United States 107
University of Montreal Montréal, Canada 107
Lund University Lund, Sweden 109
The University of Hong Kong Hong Kong, Hong Kong (SAR) 110
University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg Johannesburg, South Africa 111
Keio University Minato, Japan 112
The University of Iowa Iowa City, United States 112
University of Groningen Groningen, Netherlands 114
Brown University Providence, United States 115
University of Florida Gainesville, United States 116
Paris Diderot University Paris, France 117
The University of Western Australia Perth, Australia 118
McMaster University Hamilton, Canada 119
National and Kapodistrian University of Athens (NKUA) Athens, Greece 120
University of Kwazulu Natal Durban, South Africa 121
Oregon Health & Science University Portland, United States 122
University of Hamburg Hamburg, Germany 123
George Washington University Washington, D. C., United States 124
Indiana University - Purdue University Indianapolis Indianapolis, United States 125
Medical College of Wisconsin Milwaukee, United States 126
Autonomous University of Barcelona Barcelona, Spain 127
The Hebrew University of Jerusalem Jerusalem, Israel 128
Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf Düsseldorf, Germany 128
University of Rochester Rochester, United States 130
Makerere University Kampala, Uganda 131
University of Helsinki Helsinki, Finland 131
University of Antwerp Antwerpen, Belgium 133
Vita-Salute San Raffaele University Milano, Italy 134
Institute for European Studies - Universite Libre de Bruxelles Brussels, Belgium 135
University of Southern California Los Angeles, United States 135
University of Würzburg Würzburg, Germany 135
Seoul National University Anyang, South Korea 138
Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU) Nuremberg, Germany 140
The University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston Galveston, United States 140
National Taiwan University Taipei, Taiwan 142
University of Genoa Genoa, Italy 143
Australian National University Canberra, Australia 144
University of Paris Sud Orsay, France 145
Queen Mary University of London London, United Kingdom 146
Uppsala University Uppsala, Sweden 147
University of Padua Padua, Italy 148
Sun Yat-sen University Guangzhou, China 149
Federal University of Minas Gerais Belo Horizonte, Brazil 150
Sapienza University of Rome Roma, Italy 151
Rutgers University New Brunswick, United States 152
University of Miami Coral Gables, United States 153
Stellenbosch University Stellenbosch, South Africa 154
University of Gothenburg Göteborg, Sweden 155
University of South Florida Tampa, United States 155
Fudan University Shanghai, China 157
Zhejiang University Hangzhou, China 158
Aarhus University Aarhus, Denmark 159
University of Bergen Bergen, Norway 160
Pennsylvania State University State College, United States 161
Goethe University Frankfurt Frankfurt am Main, Germany 162
The Federal University of Rio de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro, Brazil 163
TU Dresden Dresden, Germany 164
Claude Bernard Lyon 1 Villeurbanne, France 165
University of Utah Salt Lake City, United States 165
University of Alberta Edmonton, Canada 167
University of Bristol Bristol, United Kingdom 168
University of Buenos Aires Buenos Aires, Argentina 169
University of California, Irvine (UCI) Irvine, United States 169
Peking University Beijing, China 171
University of Illinois at Chicago Chicago, United States 172
Hokkaido University Sapporo, Japan 173
Tehran University of Medical Sciences (TUMS) Tehran, Iran 174
Laval University Québec, Canada 175
University of Münster Münster, Germany 175
Tulane University New Orleans, United States 177
University of Colorado Denver Denver, United States 178
Tohoku University Sendai-shi, Japan 179
Shanghai Jiao Tong University Shanghai, China 180
Yonsei University Seoul, South Korea 181
University of Ottawa Ottawa, Canada 182
Rush University Chicago, United States 183
University of Bologna Bologna, Italy 185
University of Florence Florence, Italy 186
Tor Vergata University of Rome Roma, Italy 187
Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore Milano, Italy 188
Sungkyunkwan University Seoul, South Korea 189
University of Ulsan Ulsan, South Korea 190
Wayne State University Detroit, United States 191
Louisiana State University Baton Rouge, United States 192
University of Chile Lo Prado, Chile 192
Chang Gung University Banqiao, Taiwan 194
University of Turin Turin, Italy 195
Charles University Prague, Czech Republic 196
Capital Medical University Beijing, China 197
National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University (NYCU) Taipei, Taiwan 198
Korea University Seoul, South Korea 199
Shandong University Jinan, China 200
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