Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, for what reasons some universities are limited on the number of students that can be admitted in one academic year for degrees such as medicine.

The Government limits the number of medical students accepted to English medical schools each year according to the future medical workforce needs of the NHS and the associated public funding provided to support medical students, clinical placement providers and universities.

The Department of Health, on advice from Health Education England (HEE), decides how many student places are needed in order to meet future workforce requirements. This number is agreed with the Department for Education (DfE) and the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE). HEFCE is responsible for determining how to distribute the agreed number of places between universities, which is achieved through the use of set intake targets for each medical school. HEFCE takes into account the advice of HEE, both on future geographic or service need, as well as the availability of clinical placements.

Medical students in England are eligible for a government-funded bursary to cover tuition fees from the fifth year of study, or from the second year of the graduate entry programme. HEFCE provides teaching grants to universities in recognition of the additional costs of teaching medicine, such as specialist staff, equipment and facilities. Medical students spend a significant amount of time undertaking clinical placements with healthcare providers and HEE provides a placement fee (tariff) to providers who deliver those placements. In addition to the funding provided to students, universities and placement providers, medical students are also able to apply for funding to contribute towards their living costs whilst studying. This is provided both as repayable loans in the first four years and as a non-repayable bursary in the fifth (and sixth) year(s) of their course.