Summary about the medical degree at NTNU

The medical degree programme at NTNU was established in 1993, and now admits 155 new students every year. Since 2018, we have offered a decentralised study programme in the north of the Trøndelag county, based in Levanger. The decentralised study programme starts third year with room for 16 students each year. An equivalent study programme will be established in Møre og Romsdal from autumn 2023, based in Ålesund.

The programme runs over six years and emphasises patient contact and integration of subjects with preclinical, paraclinical and clinical subjects are taught from the first year of study. The programme consists of nine courses, and half- or full-year subject integrated exams. The teaching is given as group teaching (problem-based learning and courses in varied size groups) and as plenary teaching (lectures, seminars and team-based learning) in addition to practical-clinical teaching in groups.

The study programme has three parallel threads with the following topics: a) Health-promotion and preventive medicine, b) Communication, patient contact and professionality and c) Scientific competence.

The programme also offers a one-year Medical Student Research Programme. Up to 12 students are admitted to this programme following their second or third year of study. For these students, the full education will take seven years.

During the two first years of the study programme, the practice consists of a doctor-patient course (Lege-pasientkurs, LPK). In this course, a group of students meet with the same doctor for half a day every other week, with skills training in the intervening weeks. In the third and fourth year, the students have weekly service at St. Olavs hospital, where they rotate between the various departments. The students following the decentralised programmes follow a study model called NTNU Link (longitunal integrated clinical service). In the fifth year, the students have a practice placement at a local hospital in the region for one semester, with 14 weeks of somatic and four weeks of psychiatric practice. In the final year, there are six weeks of practice in the primary health service during the autumn semester.

There are written and oral exams in seven of the programme's nine subjects. The exam is assessed as passed / failed. Written exam consists mainly of multiple-choice questions, and the oral exam is conducted as an Objective Structured Clinical Exam (OSCE) in the first, third and fourth year. The second and last year have an alternate form of oral exam. The main thesis and hospital practice in the fifth year have their own approval schemes.

Older students are used as facilitators in PBL-groups during the first and second years, and as instructions in dissection, skills training and courses in first aid and prehospital emergency medicine.

In the fourth year, the students can apply for an exchange semester at partner universities in Asia, Africa, South America or Europe. Approximately a third of our students take advantage of this opportunity.