The Government has increased the university’s medical student allocation from 15 to 50 to help the NHS tackle shortage of health care professionals
The Government has today (Tuesday 3 October) announced that the University of Central Lancashire (UCLan) will be granted an additional allocation of 35 medical places for the academic year 2024-25.
UCLan has persistently lobbied for its quota of funded domestic medical students to be increased, so being given 35 of the total 205 new undergraduate medical places is great news for the institution and county of Lancashire.
Currently, the University of Central Lancashire has 15 UK undergraduate medical places. The extra 35 announced today will increase that number to 50 places in total, meaning UCLan can play a part in helping the NHS to achieve its long-term goal of growing the number of doctors and medical professionals.
"UCLan’s extra 35 undergraduate medical places fits with our ambition to grow our numbers and means we can now work with partners to address the health inequalities in the region "
— Vice-Chancellor of the University of Central Lancashire Professor Graham Baldwin
Vice-Chancellor of the University of Central Lancashire Professor Graham Baldwin said: “This is very exciting news for the University but is arguably even better news for the wider region as we have significant health challenges in the North West and a recognised shortage of doctors.
“UCLan’s extra 35 undergraduate medical places fits with our ambition to grow our numbers and means we can now work with partners to address the health inequalities in the region.
“Today’s announcement will also make a significant contribution to levelling up and links to a range of national and regional policies and strategic priorities.”
The NHS Long Term Workforce Plan was published in June 2023 and requires a significant expansion of medical school places to achieve its strategic objectives, which includes a commitment to double the number of medical school places, taking the number of total places nationally up to 15,000 a year by 2031/32.
The Office for Students is responsible for overseeing distribution of the extra places made available by government and decided that providers with the smallest current maximum fundable limits, of which UCLan is one, should benefit.