Medical students at Scottish universities: EQIA

9. Why is it necessary to exercise the functions to achieve the aim of the proposed policy?

It is considered necessary to exercise the functions to achieve the proposed policy because if we do not take action to improve the retention of medical undergraduates then we will have insufficient doctors to meet the workforce demand and the investment in additional undergraduate places will not translate into the medical workforce that we need.

(c) Other Considerations:

(i) Cross Border Flows

While there may potentially be a negative effect on rUK application numbers to Scottish medical schools, conversely it may encourage/ provide the opportunity for some of the 100 or so Scotland domiciled applicants who study medicine in other parts of the UK each year to remain in Scotland to study. The number of students from Wales and Northern Ireland studying medicine in Scotland is relatively low against the number of places advertised each year: 1% of graduates in 2018 were from Wales and only 8% were from Northern Ireland. There would however be some displacement as we prioritise Scotland domiciled students. In our view therefore, this approach is unlikely to lead to significant cross-border policy challenges, but may result in less cross border movement or flow at medical school stage.

(ii) Amending Legislation

The proposal does not require amendment to legislation.

(iii) Financial Benefits

The costs over the 5 year degree course of replacing 100 RUK students with 100 Scotland domiciled students at the rate of 33/34 per annum over 3 years would be £2.8 million over 3 years and £ 9.1 over 5 years, with the annual cost per annum reaching c £4.5m by year 7. This is more cost effective than creating a further 100 new undergraduate place for Scotland domiciled students. This is due to the fact that when we create new Scotland domiciled places “top ups” and ACT costs cannot by offset. Over 3 years it would cost £9.8 million to create 100 new Scots dom places and £32 million over 5 years.