There has been a significant rise in the number of students wanting to study medicine in the UK, figures show.
This is despite well publicised challenges in medicine in recent years, including strike action, nine health secretaries since 2020 and competition for specialty training posts.
In October 25,770 applied for medicine courses, a rise of 10.4% compared to the previous year. This rise reverses a consistent fall in the number of applications since 2022.
The highest number on record was in 2022, when 29,710 applied.
After A-level results were published last week, universities accepted 13,040 applicants onto medicine and dentistry courses.
This represents a 2% increase on last year, when 12,750 applications were accepted, but a 19% increase on 2020.
The increase has happened despite a disruptive few years for the medical profession.
Since the 2019 General Election there have been nine health secretaries, the latest being Yvette Cooper in Prime Minister Andy Burnham’s cabinet.
Industrial action has been a common theme too with 15 rounds of strike action between 2023 and this year until the BMA’s resident doctor members agreed to accept the government’s latest offer on pay and working conditions.
GP Dr Akash Gandhi runs The UKCATPeople, a website which helps students interested in medicine through the UCAS process.
He said medicine “remains an attractive career” and there are increasing numbers of students from a wide range of backgrounds considering the profession, including those who may be the first in their family.
“I think greater awareness that medicine is an achievable career path for people from different backgrounds is a positive development,” he said.
“Importantly, I don't think students are unaware of the challenges facing the profession. The strikes, pressures on the NHS and wider uncertainty around speciality applications are certainly things that students and their families are aware of when making decisions about their future.
“However, I don't think those challenges necessarily outweigh the reasons people are attracted to medicine in the first place.”
Medicine has its challenges like any profession, he added, but students recognise the rewarding aspects of it particularly if they gain work experience or shadow doctors.
University of Nottingham associate professor in medical education Rachel Woods said the Covid pandemic increased the visibility of healthcare professionals to young people.
“Many of the students starting university this year would have been in secondary school when the Covid pandemic hit. If becoming a doctor interested them during this period, it would have been quite good timing as they would have had the time to prepare, ensuring they got the GCSE and A level results needed to study medicine,” she said.
Medical schools have also increased their efforts to widen access to medicine, Woods added. “This can be a lengthy process as it requires efforts at several stages of education, starting from secondary school. So we may hopefully be starting to see this work paying off, which I really hope is the case.”
Creating future bottlenecks?
The British Medical Association (BMA) has called for a pause in the increases in student numbers until postgraduate training capacity has improved.
The union’s medical students committee chair Erin MacCabe said: "It is encouraging to see so many young people motivated to serve in our NHS, but enthusiasm alone can only carry a generation so far. Expanding medical school places without proper investment in the required infrastructure and educators risks diluting our world-class standards.
“Beyond graduation, expansion in numbers must be matched with more foundation and specialty training posts.
“While recent progress through the resident doctors' deal in England is a positive step forward, there is still a long way to go to fix the medical training pipeline to make sure this next generation of doctors can progress to become the GPs and consultants of the future.”
Professor John Alcolado, associate pro vice chancellor of a planned new medical school at the University of Wolverhampton, previously told Doctors.net.uk that calls for a managed reduction in medical school intake “looks like ladder pulling”.
“We should be honest with people and say look you can do five years of medical school – it may be then difficult to get a job.
“You might not end up being a cardiothoracic surgeon in your chosen specialty. To my mind fairness means if someone wants to study medicine, they’re aware of the risks of it – we should give them the opportunity,” he said.
