Four year medical degrees in the UK

NHS England’s long term workforce plan supports the development of four year, rather than five year, undergraduate medical degrees. A “substantial proportion” of medical students will, apparently, take these shorter courses.1 The four year degree is one of several initiatives aiming to increase the supply of doctors in the face of chronic medical workforce shortages.2 Others include an expansion in medical student numbers (though to date, only 350 additional places have been awarded3) and an opaque, “medical apprenticeship” pilot.4 However, as doctors face paradoxically rising unemployment, any increase in medical graduates must feed into a coherent workforce pipeline.5

NHS England argues that a shorter course will increase the domestic workforce more rapidly and reduce reliance on overseas staff. Proponents also argue that it will widen access to the profession by reducing student debt, which can deter people from less economically advantaged backgrounds.6

Most countries have medical degree courses lasting at least five years, though in the US and Canada medicine is a four year postgraduate degree, and even three year courses have been tried. …