University of Worcester welcomes first medical students

Forty-four students have started their studies, including 20 UK students, who are being funded through their four years of study by the Kildare Trust and local NHS trusts.

They have been joined by 24 self-funded international students at the former Worcester News offices on Hylton Road.

OPPORTUNITY: Cameron Banner, from Bromsgrove, said: “Worcester is renowned for its expertise in healthcare courses and the medical school has excellent facilities including a state-of-the-art Anatomy Lab. This, combined with early exposure to patient care through placements, meant that Worcester was a fantastic option for me.” (Image: University of Worcester)

Dean of the Three Counties Medical School, Professor Sandra Nicholson, said: “A significant number of our students are local to the area and all will be doing clinical placements in the three counties of Worcestershire, Herefordshire and Gloucestershire during their studies.

"We believe therefore that upon graduating that many of these students will choose to take up careers in the region, ultimately working as GPs or in local hospitals, helping to supply the local NHS workforce.”

DREAMS: Emily John came to study in Worcester having returned to the UK after living in Australia for the last decade. “I have to pinch myself twice a day to remind myself that I have made it here,” she said. (Image: University of Worcester)

Students are based at the Elizabeth Garrett Anderson building on the University’s Severn Campus, which opened earlier this year, and features a state-of-the-art anatomy suite, funded by the Clive Richards Foundation, along with clinical skills and simulation facilities which have been designed with health interdisciplinary learning in mind.

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One of the new Medicine students, Katie Cobain, from Pershore, joined the course after completing a Physician Associate Master’s course at the University. “I’m the first to go to university and the first to study medicine in my family,” she said. “I enjoy helping people and enjoy science and it’s the perfect career to combine the two - I like developing skills and talking to people. I really enjoyed my Master’s training here and thought the facilities were really good. It’s a nice university and it has a friendly atmosphere; it’s exciting to be the first cohort.”

She hopes to eventually work in Gloucestershire or Worcestershire as an anaesthetist or in an Intensive Therapy Unit (ITU) at a hospital.

The Government announced its new NHS Workforce Plan in the summer, a 15-year strategy to boost its health workforce nationally.

Targets include increasing the number of UK medical school places from the current 7,500 a year to 10,000 a year by 2028 and doubling them to 15,000 a year by 2031. However, the plan does not provide for new medical school places until September 2025. The University is continuing to press for the Government to make places available to the University for next September. 

In the meantime, the University has guaranteed that there is funding for a minimum of 16 places for home students for 2024 entry.

Professor Nicholson said: “We have the facilities and staff in place to train many more UK students in the coming years, so we just need the green light from Government with funded places in order to do this."