MBChB Medicine / Careers

At the end of the undergraduate course, you will receive your MBChB (or equivalent) degree, which is a primary medical qualification (PMQ).

Holding a PMQ entitles you to provisional registration with the General Medical Council UK (GMC), subject only to its acceptance that there are no Fitness to Practise concerns that need consideration.

Provisional registration is time limited to a maximum of three years and 30 days (1,125 days in total). After this time period, your provisional registration will normally expire.

Provisionally registered doctors can only practise in approved Foundation Year 1 posts; the law does not allow provisionally registered doctors to undertake any other type of work.

To obtain a Foundation Year 1 post, you will need to apply during the final year of your undergraduate course through the UK Foundation Programme Office selection scheme, which allocates these posts to graduates on a competitive basis.

So far, all suitably qualified UK graduates have found a place on the Foundation Year 1 programme, but this cannot be guaranteed if, for instance, there were to be an increased number of competitive applications from non-UK graduates.

Successful completion of the Foundation Year 1 programme is normally achieved within 12 months and is marked by the award of a Certificate of Experience. You will then be eligible to apply for full registration with the General Medical Council. You need full registration with a licence to practise for unsupervised medical practice in the NHS or private practice in the UK.

Although this information is currently correct, students need to be aware that regulations in this area may change and are determined through the General Medical Council (UK).

There is some discussion about whether to remove provisional registration for newly qualified doctors. If this happens, UK graduates will receive full registration as soon as they have successfully completed an MBChB (or equivalent) degree.

It should be noted that it is very likely that UK graduates will still need to apply for a training programme similar to the current Foundation Programme and that places on this programme may not be guaranteed for every UK graduate.

From academic year 2024-2025 onwards all final year medical students in the UK will be required to complete the GMC s Medical Licensing Assessment  (MLA). In the Manchester MB ChB course, the MLA will replace existing Year 5 assessments, with the MLA-provided AKT (knowledge papers) replacing our internal Y5 Applied Knowledge Test (AKT), and with continued running of our own clinical skills assessments (Clinical Competency Assessments (CCAs), in accordance with GMC’s MLA requirements. Therefore, students will not be required to undertake any additional examinations in order to complete the MLA. As the MLA examinations will be fully integrated within our course, both the AKT and CCA components must be passed to be awarded the MB ChB degree and graduate. Further details of how the MLA will be integrated into Y5 will be provided in the programme handbook for all our students.