Qualification as a doctor is a lengthy process consisting of several related stages.
The first stage is undergraduate medical education at a medical school attached to a university. Applications to most medical schools are made through UCAS and should be submitted in the autumn of the year before the course starts. The standard length of this stage is five years. However, graduates may be able to take an accelerated four-year course, which requires at least a 2.1 degree, preferably in a scientific subject. A graduate who doesn't match these criteria could take an 'Access to Medicine' course.
The next stage is the two-year Foundation Programme, entered via a national application process that is largely online.
The final stage is core speciality or run-through training, when doctors specialise in areas such as paediatrics, emergency medicine or neurosurgery. This takes five to seven years depending on the speciality and doctors are awarded a certificate of completion training when they have satisfied the assessment requirements.