The UK’s new medical schools are keen to accept domestic students and feel that it would be “relatively straightforward” to do so, but warned of a “wasted opportunity” if the Westminster government does not lift its cap on places.
A new school that opened recently at Brunel University London caters solely to students from overseas, a situation that was described as “ludicrous” by the shadow health secretary, Wes Streeting, given the shortages of staff within the National Health Service.
The Labour Party has pledged to increase the number of trainee places if it wins power at the next general election, after the current Conservative administration reintroduced a 7,500-student cap on medical degrees that had been relaxed during the pandemic.
Experts have cautioned that funding medics’ training is expensive and that a lack of quality placements make scaling up provision difficult. But the deans of the new schools told Times Higher Education that it could be done.
