All students, regardless of campus or academy assignment, will complete the same course of studies over four academic years, leading to the Doctor of Medicine (MD) degree. During the program, students are encouraged to take responsibility for ensuring that they make satisfactory progress toward achieving the MD Program's Key and Enabling Competencies at graduation. The MD Program facilitates each student's achievement of the Competencies by setting aside protected time for independent study, providing ongoing formative assessment, and ensuring fair and equitable criteria are used for promotion.

Requirements for the Doctor of Medicine (MD) Degree

Students must maintain registration in good standing for the duration of each of the four years of the MD program, including mask fitting and other registration requirements.

To ensure their own safety and the safety of the patients they encounter during training, students in the MD Program must remain in compliance with the COFM Technical Skills Requirements, COFM Policy on Immunization, and COFM Blood Borne Pathogen Policy throughout their registration in the program, up to the time of graduation.

In order to be awarded the Doctor of Medicine (MD) degree at a convocation ceremony of the University of Toronto, the Board of Examiners must certify that each student has fulfilled the following requirements:

• Credit (CR) in all courses in years 1, 2, 3, and 4 of the MD curriculum, including the Clerkship Objective Structured Clinical Examination - OSCE (OSC410Y)
• Satisfactory completion of the required number of weeks of approved and assessed elective experiences, in compliance with AFMC and MD Program electives policies.
• Satisfactory professionalism competency, as evidenced by professionalism assessments across all four years of the program

Time to Complete the Doctor of Medicine (MD) Degree

The minimum time to complete the Doctor of Medicine (MD) degree is 4 years from initial registration. 

Dismissal from the program will normally be recommended to the Board of Examiners if a student has not successfully completed all requirements within their program's expected time to completion.

MD Program with or without Concurrent MD Plus Program (MD/MEng and MD/MScHSLI)

All requirements for the MD program, including those with concurrent MD Plus programs (i.e., MEng and MScHSLI), must be completed within eight (8) full academic years from first registration in the MD Program, including leaves of absence.

Combined Programs (MD/PhD, MD/MBA, MD/MSc OMFS, and MD/Rhodes)

All requirements for these combined programs must be completed from first registration, including leaves of absence, within the following timeframes:

• Combined MD/PhD Program: eleven (11) full academic years from first registration in the MD Program
• Combined MD/MBA Program: nine (9) full academic years from first registration in the MD Program
• Combined MD/MSc OMFS Program: ten (10) full academic years from first registration in the MSc Program
• MD/Rhodes MSc path: ten (10) full academic years from first registration in the MD Program
• MD/Rhodes DPhil path: eleven (11) full academic years from first registration in the MD Program 

Students who withdraw from the non-MD component of a combined program are considered to have withdrawn from the combined program and will continue in the MD program. They are then subject to the standard eight (8)- year MD time-to-completion limit, in addition to any time already spent in the non-MD component.  For example, an MD/PhD student who has completed two years in the PhD program before withdrawal from it has an effective time limit of ten (10) years, not eleven.