hiya..am considering dooing a PhD in regenerative medicine at Bath. i cant find out any where what exactly has t be done to complete a Phd in biomed research. whjat is the criteria..i.e 5 published papers up to standard?? there must be something tangible to work towards..any light on this would greatly aid me in deciding if it is a fate i can bear lol

In the UK, you must submit a substantial thesis (size dependent on field, typically 60,000 - 100,000 words (exc. refs and appendices)). The thesis must be defended during an oral examination (viva voce) to a panel of experts in the field (one internal to university, one or two external). The examining panel will not have been involved with your research in anyway. The thesis should provide evidence of novel research and show a contribution to knowledge in the field and it should be obvious from your performance at viva that you wrote the thesis! There is no requirement to publish work before a PhD is awarded but it's always good to publish ASAP.

Bath specific info here
http://www.bath.ac.uk/prospectus/postgrad/programmes/#research

thanks for the answer..what is the format of the thesis is it made up of many papers? or one extended paper with very long sections. surey this would not be good training for writing normal journal papers with the succinct and on point style that is required?

If you read Ann's very sound advice again, you see that a PhD per se has nothing to do with journal articles. You don't get a PhD for having published widely. Publications will be useful for your viva, but you need to produce a thesis.

A thesis needs to go into far more detail than a journal. Some uni's allow students to submit a thesis where the chapters are made up of published papers. Even if where this is allowed (and don't underestimate the time it takes to undertake research and then get it published!), supplementary chapters are required to 1) 'set the scene' i.e. provide a comprehensive backgroud to the research (what's known, what needs to be known) 2) expand on the methodology in more detail than is permited in journal articles 3) summarise the research and 'tie together' the separate journal articles.

i think Ann understood what i was asking.thats great.thanks

Yes, but you didn't understand what she tried to tell you. Cheers