Applied Personal Excellence Pathway (APEP)

APEPs are a student selected project in a research or non-research topic. The latter are usually a combination of a literature review, critical appraisal and audit.

Students in both should learn to consolidate an ability to critically review literature and understand methodologies, potentially including basic statistical analysis, if appropriate.

They will be expected to produce a 5,000 to 10,000-word report and a five-minute presentation by the end of the placement.

What do I have to do?

You should offer at least one to two hours’ contact time each week per student. This will involve:

• keeping the student on track with their project
• troubleshooting their methods
• promoting critical appraisal
• reading drafts of their report/presentation.

You will ultimately mark their final report.

You can’t be on annual leave for Week 1 (week commencing 22 April 2025) or Weeks 6 to 8 (week commencing 2 June – 20 June 2025), as these are weeks when the students will need the most contact and support from you.

If you would like to do a research project, ethics approval must be gained by the supervisor in advance of the project.

You don’t need to offer clinical teaching or time in surgery, but students may well value some patient contact or other learning activities relevant to the project.

Support for supervisors

There is a short mandatory training video that chosen supervisors will be sent via email and asked to complete before the APEP starts.

The University has a dedicated ethics team to help you with any application or questions about ethics applications.

Dates for 2024-25

APEP is an nine week block placement. It runs from Tuesday 22 April to Friday 27 June 2025.

Payment

Each APEP student attracts a payment of £1,800.

To find out more

You can find out more about APEP projects by contacting:

Projects by supervisors based in Hospital or University

APEP Administrator mbchb.apep@manchester.ac.uk

Prof Sue Astley (Associate lead for PEP) Sue.Astley@manchester.ac.uk

Dr Rachelle Donn (Academic lead for PEP) Rachelle.Donn@manchester.ac.uk

Projects by supervisors based in the community

CBME year3-5 Administrator – Years3-5CBME@manchester.ac.uk

These placements are student selected, so there is no guarantee that you will be allocated a student. However, students will select their choice based on the project and information provided by the practice about what they can offer in the placement, so the more appealing this looks, the better the chances of a student selecting your placement.

Our students are very keen to do projects in unusual subjects (for example, sports medicine, deprivation, public health, medico-legal topics), as well as clinical subjects, so think widely.

It’s also worth using an eye catching, funny or memorable title to stand out.

If you need some ideas for titles or projects, we can help you think of some – just get in touch.