Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery (MBBS)

Degree Overview

College of Medicine offers a six-year MBBS program to be completed in three educational phases. Phase I is the Foundation Year and Phase II is the pre-clerkship phase, which includes years 1 to 3 and is followed by a comprehensive examination. Students who pass this examination will be promoted to Phase III which consists of year 4 and 5. In the clerkship phase students undergo clinical trainings in various departments in public hospitals in Sharjah. Since its foundation, COM has adopted an innovative, student-centred, competency-based curriculum that used Problem-Based Learning (PBL) approach with integration between Basic, Behavioural and Clinical Sciences in all phases of the program. The Foundation Year provides theoretical and practical aspects of subjects such as Biology, Chemistry, and Physics. It is offered as a 3-credit hour course that contains both theoretical and practical aspects. A total of 30 credit hours are taught over two semesters of 15 weeks each. During the Foundation Year, students also study elective courses and are expected to complete 30 credit hours of electives before the beginning of the third year of Medicine. The pre-clerkship years (1 to 3) is divided into several units / modules based on four themes: 1) Personal and Professional Development; 2) Population, Society, Health and Illness; 3) Foundation of Medicine and 4) Clinical Skills. The curriculum outcome competencies and objectives are distributed along these four themes. The clerkship years i.e. Years 4 and 5 consist of clinical rotations (10 weeks each) in the four major divisions of Medicine, Surgery, Paediatrics and Obstetrics & Gynaecology in Year 4, while in Year 5 the rotations include Medicine and Surgery sub-specialties such as Neurology, Dermatology, Cardiology, Nephrology, ENT, Ophthalmology etc. The curriculum is integrated horizontally where the basic medical sciences are integrated vertically. The basic and clinical sciences curriculums are blended together. The common major health and clinical problems are studied in the pre-clerkship phase and this health problem will be revised in detail during clerkship. The number of weeks and the credit hours equivalent for each unit is shown below and the description of each unit is included.