Clinical Academia in Training Years
It’s never early to begin considering a future as a Clinical Academic.
You don’t need to be in a substantive post to begin preparing yourself for a career in clinical academia, there are things you can do as a student or in your foundation years that can help too!
We’ve collated some information that we think might be useful below, as well as providing some additional resources and links in the buttons on the right-hand side of the page.
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How does Clinical Academia fit in my career path?
As you may have noticed from the website, something that we are keen to emphasise is that there is no one-set path that you need to take to pursue a career in Clinical Academia – in fact, it rarely follows any kind of standard path.
This flexibility is one of the many advantages of this career option, allowing you to really follow and engage with the areas and topics that interest you most, forging your own path to discovery and healthcare improvement.
The CATCH website has a fantastic resource to help you navigate how this might look, and what each stage might represent!
What can I be doing right now?
If you think you might be interested in a career combining both Clinical work and Academic activity (research and/or teaching), there are steps that you can take even during your time as a student or early in your career!
At this point, it’s largely about building your skillset wherever possible. This may entail summer studentships or other research opportunities, aiding with conferences as a volunteer, your undergraduate research dissertation (i.e. MD4002 for St Andrews MBChB students), or by joining academic research societies.
As a budding early-career Academic, it’s all about gaining exposure and insights, skill development, and making sure that this is something that you want to do!
For more information, check out this page on the CATCH website.
What opportunities can St Andrews give me?
There are a number of opportunities available to you here at St Andrews, irrespective of your current career stage.
As part of your undergraduate course here you will get an opportunity to do research (such as your MD4002 or Agents of Change modules). We also offer summer project opportunities through a number of avenues, some of which are even paid roles! These include the School of Medicine’s Vacational Scholars Programme (which you can find out more about within the School Handbook), or more broadly the University’s Laidlaw Scholars Leadership and Research Programme (unfortunately currently unavailable to our ScotGEM and ScotCOM students). It’s also worth looking out for any research assistant roles that might be advertised by researchers within the School who need a helping hand!
Additionally, outside of your studies, you could get involved with the Bute Medical Society, or our new Medical Research Society
If you’re already finished with your undergraduate and are now a qualified clinician, there are still other opportunities for you here too. We offer postgraduate research Masters courses and PhDs, as well as formalised posts such as SCREDs lectureship positions.
Who should I contact if I’m interested?
If you think you may be interested in Clinical Academia and you want to find out more, there are people here in the School that you can contact.
If you’re already a student here in the School of Medicine, you can contact your personal tutor, who will either be able to give you more information, or put you in touch with a team of others that can. Or perhaps you have a specific area of interest in mind for research, and you know that we have a lab group here that study this already – feel free to reach out to these groups as potential supervisors!
For other general enquiries, you can contact Dr Andreas Haag, our Undergraduate Research lead here in the School of Medicine – who will be happy to help, signpost and provide more information. To get in touch, you can email Andreas at [email protected].
