England to have two more medical schools
Collaboration between existing
universities will be the foundation for two new medical schools
whose doors will open by 2006.
Joint proposals by the Universities of Brighton and Sussex (128
places) and by the Universities
of Hull and York (130 places)
have been accepted by the Higher Education Funding Council
for England (HEFCE), as have
the allocation of a further 775
places to existing medical
schools in England. These
changes will bring the annual
intake to medical schools in
England to nearly 6000, and the
number of medical schools to 21
by 2006.
hese recent proposals stem
from the findings of a joint
exercise by the HEFCE and the
Department of Health, and they
reflect the NHS's need for more doctors. In September 2000 universities were invited to submit
proposals for extra medical student places, and the results were
released by the HEFCE in
March.
The two new medical schools
will address regional shortages
in Humberside and south east
England and are the latest contributions to the changing face
of undergraduate medical
education in England. Two
new medical schools were
announced in Plymouth and
Exeter (the Peninsula Medical
School) and at the University of
East Anglia in 2000.
Places for graduate entry
courses were first awarded in a
similar bidding exercise in 1999,
and currently only St George's
Hospital Medical School, the
Universities of Oxford and Cambridge, and the joint Medical
School of the Universities of
Leicester and Warwick offer a
four year programme for graduates. Of the 1033 places just
announced, 40% are dedicated
graduate places on new four
year courses to be offered by the
Universities of Birmingham,
Bristol, Newcastle, Nottingham,
Queen Mary (University of London), and Southampton.
It is not only graduates who
are being encouraged to enter
medicine. As part of the ongoing programme to recruit
from a broader range of social
and ethnic backgrounds, two
successful bids were awarded to
the Universities of Bradford and
Leeds and to the University of
Birmingham, both of which
have been allocated an additional 40 places. These proposals aim to attract increasing numbers of students from a wider
range of social and ethnic
groups.
The education and employment minister, Tessa Blackstone,
said of the announcement, "This
expansion of medical training,
particularly in shorter graduate
entry courses, will mean that not
only will we be able to offer
excellent training to more medical students each year, but we
will also have the scope to
attract students from a much
broader range of social and ethnic backgrounds." While welcoming these proposals, Kate
Duffield, the chairwoman of the
BMA's medical students committee, said: "This can only be
achieved by providing medical
students with sufficient funding
during their years of study."
James S Dawson, Leicester
studentBMJ 2001;09:129-170 May ISSN 0966-6494
