The OUM Program

Primary Medical Degree
The primary degree is an MBBS or MD degree program for students with a Bachelor’s degree (or equivalent four-year degree). The course is of 144 weeks duration arranged in 18 terms of eight weeks, typically taking four years to complete.

Students wishing to practice in the United States should check with the medical board of the state in which they wish to practice in order to determine specific requirements of an MD degree earned from a foreign medical school. For more information, visit www.fsmb.org.

The full MBBS/MD degree course consists of 18 modules of study as follows:

1. Mechanisms of disease (10 modules/80 weeks total)

• Foundation course (1 module/8 weeks total)
• Organ-system problem-based learning A
(4 modules/32 weeks total)
• Organ-system problem-based learning B
(5 modules/40 weeks total)
• A comprehensive review course in preparation for the United States Medical Licensing Exam (USMLE) Step 1 must be taken before the student may take the USMLE exam and enter clinical rotations.

2. Clinical Rotations offered in teaching hospitals
(6 modules/48 weeks total – modules not necessarily in this order)

• Medicine
• Surgery
• Pediatrics
• Psychiatry and Emergency Medicine
• Obstetrics and Gynecology
• Community / Family Medicine

3. Advanced medicine/pre-internship (2 modules/16 weeks total)

• Advanced internal medicine (with some pediatrics, specialties)
• Advanced surgery (with specialties)

A Comprehensive Review Course in preparation for the USMLE Step 2 exams (Clinical Knowledge and Clinical Skills Assessment) must be taken before the student may take the exams and graduate.
OUM students take their clinical rotations at one of several accredited teaching hospitals in Australia or the USA. Clinical clerkships for OUM students are guaranteed at the National Hospital in Apia, Samoa.

All students either may undertake the first term of study (eight weeks) in Samoa or transfer credit from one of OUM’s affiliate colleges offering the “Introduction to Medicine” course.

There is a rolling admission policy, with a new intake of students at the beginning of every new learning block, every eight weeks. Five terms are offered every year, with two-week breaks between terms and a four-week break from mid-December to mid-January. Students may, but are not required to, take all five terms offered every year. Students must complete at least three modules per year to maintain good academic status.

Most US teaching hospitals require that students have passed the USMLE Step 1 before entering clinical clerkships. Likewise, residency programs require that international medical graduates have taken (and passed) the USMLE Step 2 (Clinical Knowledge Assessment and Clinical Skills Assessment) before entering and continuing the residency.

OUM takes extra steps to make sure you are prepared for the licensing exams.