Timeline and interview dates

For information on the 2012 ST3 recruitment timeline, please visit the timeline page of this website.

Once confirmed, interview dates will be published to the interview dates page.

Post numbers & info

Details of how many vacancies will be available in each deanery/UoA for all 16 specialties can be viewed at the post information page of this website.

Within that section can also be found the competition ratios page; this contains data describing the numbers of applications and posts to the 16 participating specialties in 2011, broken down by deanery/UoA (where possible), to try and give an idea of the level of competition to expect.

This page also contains details of the distribution of SL and final scores in 2011.

The recruitment process

An overview of the recruitment/application process as a whole, along with more detailed information on the different stages of the process, can be found in the recruitment process section of the site.

Specialty recruitment models

In 2012, specialties will be organising recruitment to ST3 posts via one of three main recruitment models, dependent upon the nature of the specialty, number of posts available, predicted number of applications, etc.

To view and familiarise yourself with the model which will be in use for each specialty, please visit the ;recruitment models page.

The 2012 application form

All information on the application system - its structure, how to access and register with the system, guidance on its completion, etc. - is found in the application form section of the website.

In particular, a new development for 2012 is that we are now able to make candidates aware of the full scoring system used in assessment of candidate applications. To view this information, please visit the scoring pageof the website.

Documentation

Any documents which will be of use to candidates over the course of the recruitment year - such as the ST3 applicants' guide, person specifications, certificate C, reference form, etc. - will all be added to the documents section.

Further questions

Should you not be able to find the information you are seeking, and/or you have a question relating to ST3 recruitment, you may find the solution in the faqs section of the website.

The most common queries received by the RCP-SRO have been added here, and grouped into particular categories for ease of use (eligibility, application, interview, etc.)

Contact details

If you feel you need to raise a query which is not answered on this website, one option may be to email the RCP-SRO helpdesk (see below). However, before doing so please visit our contacts section, to ensure that you can address your query to the most appropriate body.

There will be 16 confirmed specialties participating in coordinated ST3 recruitment in 2012. These are:

• acute internal medicine (AIM)
• cardiovascular medicine
• clinical pharmacology & therapeutics (CPT)
• dermatology
• endocrinology & diabetes mellitus
• gastroenterology
• genitourinary medicine (GUM)
• geriatric medicine
• haematology
• infectious diseases (ID) including ID & medical microbiology, ID & tropical medicine, ID & virology
• neurology
• palliative medicine
• rehabilitation medicine
• renal medicine
• respiratory medicine
• rheumatology.

These specialties will be referred to throughout this website as 'participating' or 'RCP-SRO-hosted specialties'.

More information on each specialty, including indicative post numbers for each will appear in more detail in 2012, please see the SPECIALTIES SECTION of this website (see tab above) for details.

Information on the numbers of post vacancies available in each deanery/UoA and each specialty will be made available from the post information page of this website.

In 2012 ST3 recruitment, 16 deaneries/units of application (UoAs) will be participating in the coordinated ST3 recruitment process:

• East Midlands (North)
• East Midlands (South)
• East of England
• Kent, Surrey & Sussex (KSS)
• London
• Mersey
• North Western
• Northern
• Northern Ireland *
• Oxford
• Severn
• South West Peninsula
• Wales
• Wessex
• West Midlands
• Yorkshire & Humber.

* Northern Ireland is only participating in RCP-coordinated recruitment within the specialty of palliative medicine. Please contact NIMDTA for information on recruitment to other specialties in Northern Ireland.

'UoAs' & deanery clusters

Throughout this website, reference is made to 'units of application', or 'UoAs'; these are the bodies which will manage specialty recruitment across different regions.

For the most part, these share the same form as deaneries (as suggested above); but in some cases, deaneries may cluster together to form larger UoAs; or split into smaller UoAs, such as East Midlands North & South.

For more information on each of the participating deaneries, please visit the deaneries/UoAs section of this website; also, each specialty pagewill contain details of the UoAs recruiting to posts within that specialty.

Please be aware that not all deaneries/UoAs will have vacancies in all specialties. Information on the numbers of post vacancies available in each deanery/UoA within each specialty will be made available from the post numbers pageof this website.