Brighton and Sussex Medical School

Brighton and Sussex Medical School (BSMS) was formed in 2003 out of a partnership between the Universities of Sussex and Brighton, as well as surrounding NHS organisations. It runs a five-year medical degree.

Dissection of human cadavers is a compulsory part of the medical course at the Anatomy Laboratory, housed on the University of Sussex campus. This provides facilities where students can practise dissection and prosection. Surgeons and radiologists from Nuffield Health Brighton act as anatomy demonstrators.

Students are based for their first two years on the Falmer campuses of Brighton and Sussex universities, about nine minutes from Brighton City Centre. Later they move to the education centre the Royal Sussex County Hospital, where many clinical placements are also based.

Researchers have access to the Brighton and Sussex Clinical Investigation and Research Unit, a £4 million facility, opened in 2006 as a partnership between BSMS and Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals NHS Trust. It was created to underpin the development of the medical school and Trust’s research strategy.

At Falmer there is a Clinical Imaging Sciences Centre, which houses an integrated PET-CT imaging system and a 1.5T MRI scanner, often used in oncology and neuroscience.

The Medical Research Building and Trafford Centre on the Sussex campus includes facilities for research scientists to work on cell signalling, developmental biology, neuro-inflammation, human genetics, cancer, infection and immunity.

The School also includes the Institute of Postgraduate Medicine, which contributes to teaching and research output, divided into three main areas of study in Clinical Specialities, Public Health and Professional Development.