The real reason that new UK medical schools are focusing on international students

There are plenty of voices calling for the expansion of medical school places to provide the NHS with the workforce it so desperately needs. In 2018 the Royal College of Physicians called for the number of medical school places to be doubled.1 Then last year the Medical Schools Council did its own sums and called for 5000 additional places.2

This is the only solution, they argue, to the unsustainable UK model that relies on more international than UK graduates joining the General Medical Council (GMC) register every year. The increased medical school places announced for 2018-19 along with the creation at the time of five new medical schools has no hope of meeting future needs, they say.

Last year, there was a 21% increase in applications to medical schools, and more applicants than expected met the required grades. The government ended up funding hundreds of extra places, but many traditional medical schools were put under strain, with some students asked to defer and others encouraged to move to another university with a £10 000 incentive.3

So why will the three new medical schools that have gained GMC approval to start taking students from September be open primarily to international students paying fees of more than £40 000 a year?

Chester, Brunel, and Three Counties medical schools have been working for years behind the scenes to meet regulatory approval processes, assuming that more medical school places would be announced. Funding for medical students is agreed by the Treasury and flows through the Department of Health and Social Care and …