Regulations for examinations

Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery: Revised Curriculum Regulations

(Statutes and Ordinances, p. 480)

With effect from 1 September 2015

The General Board, on the recommendation of the Faculty Board of Clinical Medicine, have approved revised Curriculum Regulations for the degrees of Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery, as set out in the Annex below. The revised regulations will apply to students commencing the clinical course on or after 1 September 2015. The Faculty Board of Clinical Medicine have recommended the new regulations for the following reasons:

(a)to implement a revision of the teaching programme for clinical medical students, from 1 September 2015. The core curriculum continues to be defined by the Outcomes (which are unchanged) in the General Medical Council’s document, Tomorrow’s Doctors (2009). However, changes in the method and location of healthcare delivery (for example, a greater emphasis on primary care, outpatients, and other ambulatory settings), as well as the growth of the Cambridge Biomedical Campus, provide opportunities for following patients’ journeys through multiple settings, and for deepening students’ learning according to their own particular interests;

(b)to ensure a formal summative assessment and progression point at the end of each clinical year and to spread the assessment load for students more evenly across the clinical course;

(c)to bring the Cambridge medical courses into line with practice at other medical schools across the country, particularly as regards the maximum duration of the courses, and the number of times a candidate may resit examinations.

The General Board are satisfied that the amendments the revised regulations introduce are minor and that students who commenced the clinical course prior to 1 September 2015 will not be disadvantaged by these changes; temporary regulations have been included to ensure that such a student may apply to the Faculty Board for special permission to be a candidate for a subject on a third occasion and to continue to be a candidate if more than ninety-six months have elapsed since he or she began the preclinical medical course, notwithstanding the introduction of revised requirements.

Annex

Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery

1. These regulations, which shall be known as the Curriculum Regulations for the degrees of Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery, shall apply to those students who begin their clinical course on or after 1 September 2015.

2. On completing the requisite number of terms, a student who has passed in Parts I, II, and III of the Final M.B. Examination as prescribed in these regulations shall be qualified to supplicate for the degrees of Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery. The short titles of these degrees shall be M.B., B.Chir.

3. In these regulations unless the context shall require otherwise:

(a)the term Faculty Board shall mean the Faculty Board of Clinical Medicine;

(b)the term Regius Professor shall mean the Regius Professor of Physic;

(c)the term Associate Teaching Hospital or Associate Teaching General Practice shall mean a hospital or health-care provider, or other institution associated with the University, which has been approved by the Faculty Board of Clinical Medicine to provide clinical placements for medical students;

(d)the term instruction shall mean instruction given in the University or elsewhere and may include practical instruction;

(e)the term approved course shall mean a course approved for the purpose of these regulations by the Faculty Board of Clinical Medicine;

(f)the term approved courses of clinical instruction shall mean courses or placements which are held in the University, University Hospital, Associate Teaching Hospital, or Associate Teaching General Practice, or other institution associated with the University as the Faculty Board may approve for the purpose of these regulations, and which have been approved by the Faculty Board as courses appropriate to a Part of the Final M.B. Examination.

(g)the term year of clinical study shall mean a period of twelve consecutive months (including not more than eight weeks’ vacation) during which a student has attended full-time approved courses of clinical instruction as defined in Regulation 3(f);

(h)the term evidence shall mean:

(i)in the case of study in another university, evidence signed by a responsible officer of the university concerned;

(ii)during the period of clinical study defined in Regulation 3;

(iii)evidence signed by the Director of Medical Education or another officer authorized by the Director;

(i)the term satisfactory completion shall mean that the student has performed appropriately in an examination or submitted work which satisfies the Faculty Board of Clinical Medicine which shall publish annually in the Michaelmas Term a statement in the Reporter outlining the requirements for satisfactory completion;

(j)the term satisfactory performance shall mean performance which satisfies the Director of Medical Education or another officer or officers authorized by the Director;

(k)the term M.B./Ph.D. Programme student shall mean a student who, having been approved by the Faculty Board for admission to a course combining research and clinical instruction in the University, has subsequently been admitted as a Graduate Student by the Board of Graduate Studies;

(l)the term Cambridge Graduate Course student shall mean a student who holds an Honours Degree of this or a recognized university and has been approved by the Faculty Board for admission to a four-year course in medicine (Cambridge Graduate Course in Medicine);

(m)the term Medical Students Register shall mean a register of students who are deemed fit to practise medicine. A student may be removed temporarily or permanently from the Register if he or she is deemed no longer a fit person to have the privilege of access to patients. Subject to the powers of the Council and of the General Board and of a Fitness to Practise Appeal Panel, the Register shall be maintained by the Faculty Boards of Biology and Clinical Medicine through the Fitness to Practise Committee.

4. There shall be a Second Examination and a Final Examination for the degrees of Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery, referred to in these regulations as the Second M.B. Examination and the Final M.B. Examination.

5. The Faculty Board, after consulting other bodies concerned, shall have power to issue from time to time supplementary regulations defining or limiting all or any of the Parts, subjects, papers, or sections of the Second M.B. Examination or the Final M.B. Examination. Due care shall be taken that sufficient notice is given of any alteration of such supplementary regulations.

6. Where a candidate for any of the examinations prescribed in these regulations is required by them to produce evidence of instruction or of any other matter, the candidate’s entry shall not be considered to have been made earlier than the day on which the Registrary receives that evidence or the last part of it to be submitted.

7. No student shall be a candidate for any subject of the Second M.B. Examination unless he or she has previously satisfied the University’s matriculation requirements.

8. The Faculty Board shall have power to grant exemption from all or part of the matriculation requirements to a student who is deemed by the Board to have attained a satisfactory standard in an examination or examinations approved by the Board for this purpose in an appropriate subject or subjects.

9. The subjects of the Second M.B. Examination shall be as follows:

Biology of Disease (BOD)
Functional Architecture of the Body (FAB)
Head and Neck Anatomy (HNA)
Homeostasis (HOM)
Human Reproduction (HR)
Introduction to the Scientific Basis of Medicine (ISBM)
Mechanisms of Drug Action (MODA)
Molecules in Medical Science (MIMS)
Neurobiology with Human Behaviour (NHB)
Preparing for Patients (PFP)
Social Context of Health and Illness (SCHI)

provided that a candidate taking the Cambridge Graduate Course in Medicine shall not be examined in the subject PFP.

(a)The examinations in BOD, FAB, HOM, MIMS, and MODA shall each consist of a written paper of one hour, which shall contain compulsory short-answer questions (Section I), and a practical examination of two hours (Section II).

(b)The examination in HR shall consist of a written paper of one hour, which shall contain compulsory short-answer questions (Section I), and a practical examination of one hour (Section II).

(c)The examination in NHB shall consist of a written paper of one and a half hours, which shall contain compulsory short-answer questions (Section I), and a practical examination of one hour (Section II).

(d)The examination in SCHI shall consist of a written paper of ninety minutes.

(e)The examination in ISBM shall consist of a written paper of forty-five minutes.

(f)The examinations in PFP shall each consist of the submission of records of such course-work done by candidates as shall be specified from time to time by the Faculty Board of Clinical Medicine after consultation with the Faculty Board of Biology.

(g)The examination in HNA shall consist of a practical paper of one hour consisting of two sections (Section I) and (Section II).

(h)The examination in FAB shall consist of a written paper of forty-five minutes, which shall contain compulsory short-answer questions (Section I), and a practical examination of one and a half hours (Section II).

10. The Second M.B. Examination shall be held as follows:

(a)The examinations in BOD, FAB, HOM, HR, MIMS, MODA, and NHB shall be held twice a year, as follows:

(i)in the Easter Term, on the dates prescribed for Part Ia and Part Ib of the Medical and Veterinary Sciences Tripos;1

(ii)in September, beginning on the Monday next but one before the first day of the Michaelmas Term.

(b)The examinations in ISBM, HNA, and SCHI shall be held twice a year on the last day of Full Lent Term and in the week beginning on the Monday next but one before the first day of the Michaelmas Term.

(c)Records of course-work for PFP shall be submitted, in accordance with detailed arrangements approved by the Faculty Board after consultation with the Faculty Board of Biology.

11. A candidate for the Second M.B. Examination shall be required to have diligently attended approved courses of instruction appropriate to the subject or subjects to be offered in the examination. Approved courses recognized for this purpose shall be listed in Schedule A to these regulations; the Faculty Board shall have power to amend this Schedule from time to time as they think fit. The Faculty Board shall have authority to approve for this purpose additional courses offered by a university other than Cambridge, or, in exceptional circumstances, to waive the requirement. The Second M.B. Examination may be taken by an unmatriculated student who has satisfied this requirement and who is certified on behalf of a College to the Registrary to be a bona fide candidate for admission to the College.

No student whose name does not appear on the Medical Students Register shall be a candidate for any subject of the Second M.B. Examination.

12. (a) The Faculty Board shall have power to grant exemption from any subject or subjects of the Second M.B. Examination to a candidate for admission as a clinical student from a university other than Cambridge, provided that the student has satisfied the conditions of Regulation 11 and has attained a satisfactory standard, as prescribed by the Faculty Board, in corresponding subjects taken in an examination for a degree of a university other than Cambridge.

(b)The Faculty Board shall inform the Registrary as early as possible of the names of those candidates who have been granted exemption from any subject or subjects of the Second M.B. Examination and who have satisfied the requirements in Regulation 12(a).

13. A candidate who is unsuccessful in the examination in any subject of the Second M.B. Examination shall be eligible for re-examination, provided that, except by special permission of the Faculty Board granted in exceptional circumstances,

(a)a student who fails to satisfy the Examiners in any subject other than PFP shall not be a candidate for re-examination in that subject later than nine months after her or his first attempt in that subject;

(b)a student whose submission for any course of PFP fails to satisfy the Examiners shall be required to submit a revised report for that course not later than the end of the current academical year;

(c)subject to Regulation 28, no student shall be a candidate in any subject on more than two occasions in total.

The Faculty Board shall not normally grant a student special permission under Regulation 13(c) on more than two separate occasions.

14. The Final M.B. Examination shall consist of three Parts: Parts I, II, and III. Each Part shall consist of a number of written and clinical components. The number shall be determined by the Faculty of Clinical Medicine, and a list of the components shall be published in the Michaelmas Term. A timetable for each sitting of the examinations shall be published by the Board of Examinations after consultation with the Faculty Board, before the division of the Easter Term each year for the calendar year next following. The examinations shall normally be held in accordance with the following timetable.

Part I shall be held in July and Part II shall be held in the Easter Term. The written component(s) of Part III shall be held in the Michaelmas Term and the clinical component(s) of Part III shall be held in the Easter Term.

Part I and Part II shall also be held in September; the written components of Part III shall also be held in the Lent Term. The Examiners, at their discretion, may give permission for a student to be re-examined for one or more clinical components of Part III before the end of June.

15. The Examiners may, at their discretion, award a distinction to any candidate who has passed all Parts of the Final M.B. Examination at the first attempt, and may examine any candidate for distinction viva voce.

Candidature for the Final M.B. Examination shall be subject to the restrictions and conditions specified in Regulations 16–21 below.

16. Before taking any Part of the Final M.B. Examination a student shall

(a)have completed the Second M.B. Examination by having passed all the subjects thereof; and

(b)have obtained a degree deemed appropriate by the Faculty Board.

No student whose name does not appear on the Medical Students Register shall be a candidate for any Part of the Final M.B. Examination.

17. A student who proposes to be a candidate for any Part of the Final M.B. Examination shall produce evidence of having satisfactorily completed the approved courses of clinical instruction appropriate to that Part. Except by permission of the Faculty Board in exceptional circumstances, and subject to any conditions determined by them, a course of clinical instruction shall not count towards the requirements of the Final M.B. Examination

	(a)	if it began before the student’s completion of the Second M.B. Examination;
or	(b)	if it began before the student obtained the degree required under Regulation 16(b) above.

18. A student who has failed to complete satisfactorily any part of the approved courses of clinical instruction, including permitted reassessments as specified by the Faculty Board of Clinical Medicine, shall not be permitted to progress to the next course of clinical instruction.

19. (a) A student who is a candidate for the first time for Part I, Part II, or Part III shall offer all components.

(b)A student shall not be a candidate for the first time for Part I until at least nine months have elapsed since the beginning of the student’s course of clinical study.

(c)A student shall not be a candidate for the first time for Part II unless

(i)he or she has completed one year and eight months of clinical study in the University,

and unless

(ii)<with the exception of M.B./Ph.D. Programme students who began the clinical course prior to 1 September 2015>2 the student has previously passed in Part I.

(d)A student shall not be a candidate for the first time for the written components of Part III unless

(i)he or she has completed two years and two months of clinical study in the University,

and unless

(ii)the student has previously passed in Part II and <with the exception of M.B./Ph.D. Programme students who began the clinical course prior to 1 September 2015>2 in Part I.

(e)A student shall not be a candidate for the first time for the clinical components of Part III unless

(i)he or she has completed two years and six months of clinical study in the University,

and unless

(ii)the student has previously passed in the written components of Part III, in Part II and <with the exception of M.B./Ph.D. Programme students who began the clinical course prior to 1 September 2015>2 in Part I.

(f)The Faculty Board shall have the power to grant exemption from any component of Part I of the Final M.B. Examination to any M.B./Ph.D. Programme student who began the clinical course prior to 1 September 2015, providing that the student has attained a satisfactory standard, as prescribed by the Faculty Board, in corresponding examinations taken since the student began the clinical course.>2

20. Except by special permission of the Faculty Board in exceptional circumstances, no student shall be a candidate for any Part of the Final M.B. Examination, if more than ninety-six months have elapsed since he or she began the preclinical medical course, except that

(a)no affiliated student shall be a candidate for any Part of the Final M.B. Examination, if more than eighty-four months have elapsed since he or she began the preclinical medical course;

(b)no Cambridge Graduate Course student shall be a candidate for any Part of the Final M.B. examination, if more than seventy-two months have elapsed since he or she began the Cambridge Graduate Course;

(c)no M.B./Ph.D. programme student shall be a candidate for any Part of the Final M.B. Examination, if more than 132 months have elapsed since he or she began the preclinical medical course (or 120 months in the case of an Affiliated Student);

(d)no student satisfying the requirements in Regulation 12(a) shall be a candidate for any Part of the Final M.B. Examination if more than forty-eight months have elapsed since he or she began the clinical medical course.

21. If at the first attempt a student fails to satisfy the Examiners in any component(s) of Part I, Part II, or Part III, he or she shall be eligible for re-examination in the relevant component(s) under conditions set by the Faculty Board, taking them separately or together, provided that

(a)a candidate for re-examination in Part III in any academic year following that in which he or she first took the examination shall offer all components of Part III; and

(b)subject to Regulation 28, if a candidate fails to satisfy the Examiners in any component of Part I, Part II, or Part III on one occasion subsequent to her or his first candidature for that component, he or she shall not be re-examined in that component again except by special permission of the Faculty Board in exceptional circumstances. The Faculty Board will not normally grant special permission for a student to be re-examined, if he or she has already been granted such permission on two separate prior occasions, either for Second M.B. or for Final M.B. Examinations.

22. For grave cause a student may be required by the Faculty Board to defer taking a Part of the Final Examination until he or she has received the permission of the Faculty Board to do so.

23. The arrangements for the appointment of Examiners shall be as follows:

(a)The Faculty Board shall nominate for each subject of the Second M.B. Examination a Senior Examiner and such number of other Examiners and Assessors as are required to conduct the examination, provided that for sittings of subjects of the Second M.B. Examination held under Regulation 10(a)(i) the Examiners shall be the Examiners appointed for those subjects in the Medical and Veterinary Sciences Tripos.

(b)The Regius Professor shall be an Examiner and Chair of Examiners for all Parts of the Final M.B. Examination, provided that, on the nomination of the Regius Professor, any Professor who is medically qualified, or any Doctor of Medicine who is a member of the Regent House, may be appointed to deputize for the Regius Professor for the purpose of this regulation. In addition, the Faculty Board shall nominate for each specialty of Part I, Part II, and Part III of the Final M.B. Examination, a Senior Examiner and such number of other Examiners as the Faculty Board may deem sufficient. Such Examiners shall be appointed to serve for the calendar year next following their appointment.

24. The Faculty Board shall appoint for each calendar year such number of persons as they may deem sufficient to act as Collectors and Assistant Collectors of Cases, provided that the persons so appointed shall be not less than three in number and shall include one Physician and one Surgeon. The Collectors and Assistant Collectors of Cases shall invite such patients and shall make such arrangements as may be required for the clinical examinations in Part I, Part II, and Part III of the Final M.B. Examination. The Faculty Board shall appoint for each clinical examination such numbers of persons as they deem sufficient to act as Clinical Assessors, who shall provide marks and comments to the appointed Examiners.

25. The Examiners and Assessors in each subject or component of each examination shall observe the following requirements:

(a)the Examiners shall be jointly responsible for all the questions set in the written paper and the practical examination (if any) of that subject or component;

(b)no candidate shall be judged to have failed in any subject unless his or her work has been assessed by at least two Examiners or Assessors.

26. Separate class-lists shall be published for each subject of the Second M.B. Examination and for each Part of the Final M.B. Examination. The names of successful candidates in the several lists shall be arranged in alphabetical order. The list for Part I, Part II, and Part III of the Final M.B. Examination shall indicate the components of the examination in which the candidate has passed. Subject to Regulation 15, special merit may be recognized by the award of a mark of distinction.

27. The Chair of Examiners shall communicate to the Registrary the marks of all the candidates for the component of a Part, or subject, of the examination with which he or she is concerned. The Registrary shall communicate to Tutors or other designated College officers, for transmission to their pupils, the marks of their pupils and such other information as may be considered advisable.

28. The Faculty Board of Clinical Medicine shall establish a procedure for the review of decisions taken by them in respect of students who have applied exceptionally for an additional attempt at a Second M.B., or Final M.B. Examination under Regulations 13 or 21(b); or exceptionally for an extension of time to complete the course under Regulation 20. No person who applies for review under the procedure so established shall be entitled to apply also for review of the same matter under the procedure for determining complaints by members of the University in statu pupillari established under the Regulation for complaints by students.

Temporary Regulations

29. Notwithstanding Regulation 1, candidates for the M.B./Ph.D. Programme who began the clinical course before 1 September 2015 shall be examined under these regulations and the text in angular brackets in Regulation 19 shall apply.

30. Notwithstanding Regulation 13, a student who commenced the preclinical course prior to 1 September 2015 may apply to the Faculty Board for special permission to be a candidate in any subject for a third time, regardless of the number of occasions on which such permission has previously been given.

31. Notwithstanding Regulation 20, a student who commenced the preclinical course prior to 1 September 2015 shall be able to apply to the Faculty Board for special permission to be a candidate if more than ninety-six months have elapsed since he or she began the preclinical medical course.

Schedule A
Premedical Requirements

Schedule A, which sets out matriculation requirements, will be rescinded as it is no longer required; the examination requirements for matriculation are already listed in Ordinances (Statutes and Ordinances, p. 180). Schedule B will be renamed as Schedule A and retained, together with the supplementary regulations for the Second M.B. Examination and the procedure for the review of decisions of the Faculty Board of Clinical Medicine under Regulation 28, set out in the Appendix.

Diplomas and Certificates open to non-members of the University: Correction

(Statutes and Ordinances, p. 589)

With effect from 1 October 2015

In the Notice published on 22 April 2015 (Reporter, 6383, 2014–15, p. 490), the name of the new certificate should have read as follows (Examinations, not Examination):

Certificates

Faculty of Education

Postgraduate Certificate in Educational Assessment and Examinations