Medical students at Scottish universities: EQIA

2. Executive Summary

This Equality Impact Assessment (EQIA) has considered the potential impacts of replacing 100 rUK students with 100 Scots dom students over 3 years, on each
of the protected characteristics. Evidence confirms that if we do not take action to improve the retention of medical undergraduates then the £23m Medical Education package investment made in recent years will not translate into the medical workforce that we need.

How this impacts the protected characteristics is set out under Description of Findings.

The EQIA has identified that it is expected that those of Scottish national origin will generally benefit from the policy proposal; English, Northern Irish and Welsh (rUK) nationals are likely to be indirectly disadvantaged. Our rationale for this policy however is the positive gain in terms of workforce, estimated at 36 doctors a year once the policy is fully implemented, justifies any indirect disadvantage. It has also identified that we need to continue to monitor the effect of the policy in terms of the protected characteristics of race and religion and belief.

In a number of instances data is limited and the effects are therefore unclear. Again we will continue to monitor data going forward.