Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what financial incentives are available to his Department to help increase the number of people applying for medicine courses.

The Government does not consider that there is a requirement for national financial incentives as undergraduate medicine is a competitive subject to gain entry to. For 2018/19 entry, there were around three applicants to every place. Universities and medical schools may choose to offer local scholarships or financial awards to students which would cover or contribute to the cost of tuition fees. These may be targeted to students that are currently under-represented in medical education.

More generally, all higher education providers wishing to charge higher level fees must have an access and participation plan agreed with the Office for Students. In these plans, providers must set out the measures they intend to put in place to support students from disadvantaged backgrounds and under-represented groups to access and then successfully participate in higher education.

For the first four years of an undergraduate medical degree, eligible students can access from Student Finance England (SFE) tuition fee support, a loan for living costs and other supplementary grants if applicable. From the fifth year of their course, medical students are able to apply for the National Health Service bursary to help with tuition fees and living costs. They can also apply for a non-means tested reduced rate living cost loan from SFE in the fifth year of their course.