First and foremost: the allocation of foundation programme jobs for final-year medical students needs a step-change

Last year, the number of students receiving their lowest foundation school preference skyrocketed and in June, hundreds of graduates remained without a job just weeks before starting employment. What should be a smooth passage to employment, is a patently unfair experience for many.

We will soon publish a BMA position on proposed changes to the allocation process for the Foundation Programme. One of our objectives is to ensure NHS England's commitment to providing applicants with at least eight weeks' notice for programme schedules is upheld, with compensation provided if this standard is not met. We look forward to sharing more with you.

The SFP (Specialised Foundation Programme) has also seen chaotic change. In February, merit-based applications were scrapped without consultation with students or academic staff. This was only partially reversed in August after a concerted lobbying effort by the BMA.

Yet the resulting system has still left students and medical school staff in the dark. Limited guidance was published on the same day applications opened. 

We will lobby for the reversal of these damaging changes to SFP recruitment, better communication with students, and for guidelines on fair and consistent selection criteria across all four nations. We’ve written to NHS England to reiterate our position.

We will continue to advocate for protecting the quality and rigour of our degrees. Strong curriculum content is vital and in motions passed at the BMA medical students conference, students have consistently identified gaps and areas to improve in undergraduate medical teaching. This year, these will inform an internal review of how this compares and contrasts with the GMC’s curriculum document, Outcomes for Graduates. 

At the same time, the broader devaluation of doctors in the UK is manifesting in proposed degradation of standards in medical education. We’re working with colleagues across the profession and in the BMA to continue opposing four-year undergraduate medical degrees (unless they are graduate-entry degrees). We’re also concerned about the implementation of medical apprenticeship models, and we’ll be engaging with students at the first pilot site. 

Finally, we are hearing concerns from students who feel professionalism is sometimes weaponised inappropriately by medical schools. This year, we will gather new data to better understand how professionalism concerns are managed and to ensure that student perspectives are at the heart of the conversation.

What’s next?

We know students feel left in the dark about changes to their degree. To address this, we will push for more transparency and engagement from medical education bodies.  

By also increasing our communication and keeping you informed of our actions, we will ensure that you have a seat at the table. In these turbulent times, you deserve to be both informed, and represented in the room, when decisions affecting your future are made.

Over the next few months you’ll hear more from us and the medical students committee – here on the BMA website, on X and on Instagram.

We also want to hear from you. Do you have ideas about how the GMC’s Outcomes for Graduates might better reflect modern medical education? Tell us about it. Because your opinions, of your education, matter.

We can be contacted at [email protected]. Your university’s MSC rep can be found can be found here.

Elgan Manton-Roseblade is a medical student at the University of Edinburgh. Callum Williams is a medical student at the University of Glasgow. Together, Elgan and Callum are your MSC deputy co-chairs for education