Why medical students choose not to carry out an intercalated BSc: a questionnaire study

Abstract

Background: At some medical schools, students can opt to undertake a 1 year intercalated degree, usually a BSc, in addition to their medical course. Over the last few years the numbers of students who have opted to undertake an intercalated degree have been steadily decreasing despite the advantages in securing foundation posts. The aim of this study was to find out why medical students opted not to take an intercalated degree.

Methods: All 4th and 5th year medical students (n = 343) who had elected not to take an intercalated degree were personally handed a questionnaire.

Results: 293 completed questionnaires were returned (response rate 85%). The most common reason students opted not to intercalate was because they did not want to have another year of study (69.6%) or incur more debt (51.9%). Only 45 (15.3%) students said they had enough information to inform their decision: reported take up of information provision was poor.

Conclusions: Our findings indicate that the benefits of intercalating need to be better defined and presented to students in a way that they can make a more informed decision.

Figure 1

Males and female student choosing each reason for deciding they did not wish to undertake an intercalated degree.

Figure 2

4^th and 5^th year students who indicated the information sources they had used to inform their decision as to whether or not they undertook an intercalated degree.

Figure 3

Male and female students who indicated their future career interests.