Established in 1993, this one year course provides an avenue for both scientists and clinicians to enter the growing field of reproductive biology and an opportunity for those already familiar with this area to gain greater appreciation of the biological processes of mammalian reproduction that are relevant to the manipulation of fertility and the treatment of reproductive disease.
Graduates are equipped with the formal theoretical and practical training necessary within this highly specialised discipline. Designed to broaden the clinician's knowledge of the underlying scientific principles and to enhance the scientist's appreciation of the clinical management of infertility, the course encourages independent thought and a research orientated approach to the practice of assisted conception.
The course runs for one academic year, starting in October, and comprises lectures, practicals, seminars/tutorials and a research project, which is laboratory based in most cases. In addition, there are other associated organised activities such as a journal club, clinical education meetings and the rotation of the students through the Nottingham University Research and Treatment Unit in Reproduction (NURTURE) as observers. The content of the lecture and practical programme deliberately integrates the theoretical basis of mammalian reproductive physiology with its foundations in the field of human assisted conception research.
A major feature and strength of the course is that the primary components, in terms of reproductive physiology, research methods, clinical embryology and clinical medicine are all provided by experts who are highly active within their own areas of expertise, giving the information provided to the students an immediacy and relevance that it would be impossible to achieve using a more static and established teaching base.
The core of the lecture course is given by members of the Division of Obstetrics and Gynaecology and other Units within the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences. There is also a substantial input from the Division of Animal Sciences (School of Biosciences), based at the Sutton Bonington campus. The majority of lectures and practical classes take place in the Course's dedicated teaching room and laboratory in the Division of Obstetrics and Gynaecology within the Queen's Medical Centre, Nottingham.
Requirements:
Candidates must normally be graduates of an approved university with a minimum 2(ii) degree or equivalent in medicine, nursing or biological sciences. Applicants whose first language is not English will also need to comply with our language requirements. | 
