Intercalated degrees Is studying for an intercalated degree a wise career move?
Editor - I am writing in response to FIai Ching Leung's article about the intercalated BSc.1 Overall, I thought the article did not answer the question that it set out to. The only exception was that if you are a student interested in going into research after medical school the article provided a fairly clear answer: Yes.
However, if—like most medical students —you have little intention of doing research then the answer was not evident in Dr Leung's article. he begins by pointing out the differences in the number of people doing intercalated degrees between medical schools, and therefore confirms students' anxiety about there being competition between applicants with and without an intercalated degree.
Potential benefits of studying for an intercalated degree are more geared towards potential researchers than potential clinicians. Dr Leung points this out. Also, the quoted research seems to imply that it is not the intercalated degree that imparts a deep and strategic learning style to the student, but the reverse—students are more likely to intercalate if they have a deep and strategic learning style. Dr Leung also says that medically qualified professors and readers in Britain are more likely to have intercalated. however, it is not clear whether this is because a few years ago it was only the most gifted students who were allowed to intercalate and were therefore more likely to become professors.
As the intercalated degree seems to have no impact on finals results, perhaps the only other way of looking at the problem is to ask the question, “Does having an intercalated degree make you more likely to get jobs?” These jobs can range from preregistration house officer posts to consultancies. However, no work has been published that attempts to answer this question. Dr Leung seems to have decided that the question is irrelevant. he says, “house officers at district hospitals are not necessarily disadvantaged compared with those at teaching hospitals.” Nobody is saying that they are. However, it is telling that consultants at teaching hospitals prefer graduates with the highest finals results, and are therefore interested in the academic achievement of the candidates. It is therefore a highly relevant and interesting question to ask if candidates with an intercalated degree are more likely to be employed. It is also, I believe, the question that most students ask when considering whether to intercalate. Some have suggested that it does not matter because “everybody gets a pRhO job.” But what about after that when people are applying for senior house officer or registrar jobs? Before Dr Leung's article, the answer was elusive; it is now no clearer.
Daniel Aston, fourth year medical student, university College London
Email: d.aston@ucl.ac.uk
studentBMJ 2001;09:443-486 December ISSN 0966-6494
- Leung FI.C. Is studying for an intercalated degree a wise career move? studentBMj 2001;9:418.9.
