University of St Andrews - degrees and licenses in medicine and dentistry: consultation

5. Alternative options

22. An alternative approach would be to remove the prohibition only to the extent of enabling the University to award the PMQ in respect of ScotGEM students, instead of lifting the entire prohibition.

23. A partial lift would retain a prohibition which is not applicable to any other UK higher education institution. A full lift, however, would put the University on an equal footing with all other Scottish Universities and would also result in an efficient use of the Scottish Parliament's time and resources given that the University is one of seven bidders in the separate PfG process to consider options for a new Scottish medical school. Should St Andrews be the successful bidder no further legislative change would be required to enable it to award medical degrees by itself.

24. Another alternative approach would be to leave the prohibition in place, meaning that the ScotGEM PMQ would be awarded by Dundee University alone. This is not the preferred approach as the ScotGEM bid was jointly awarded to both Dundee and St Andrews Universities.