My name’s Ehsas Kakkar, and I’m your BMA medical students committee lead for international students and affairs for 2024/25. Many international medical students face repeated finance, welfare and wellbeing concerns throughout their medical degree. My priority is to bring attention to these issues at a national level. International students make up approximately 7.5% of all medical students in the UK and are a valuable part of our institutions, the future of the NHS and to healthcare across the world.

As an international student myself, it’s important that we shed light on some of the obstacles that we face and bring them to the attention of medical students, medical schools and organisations across the UK to fight for a better future. This year, I have developed four main aims to do so.

Raise awareness on rising fees

Rising tuition fees that international students pay is an issue we have little to no control over, being approximately four to six times higher than home students’ fees. The fees also see a 1% to 5% rise of RPI (Retail Price Index) each year, and this is increasingly a concern for students.

In addition to this, the introduction of the ACT (additional cost of teaching) levy within Scotland in 2017 and Northern Ireland in 2021, means that international medical students must pay an additional £10,000 to medical schools to finance clinical training on placements that are delivered by the NHS.

While this is subsidised in total tuition fees by some universities, in others it’s an extra charge. This levy has not yet been introduced in Wales and England. However, the implementation of this is being considered.

With no fixed fee cap, with time it’s evident that increasingly, only the globe’s wealthiest or those supported by their government will be able to study medicine in the UK. We understand that a diverse workforce is important for the quality of patient care going forward, so we must continue to attract the widest range of prospective doctors from all backgrounds internationally, as much as possible.

With limited funding options or assistance available to international students, many are forced to find work during their degree. Working whilst balancing the pressures of medical school to stay financially afloat can be extremely stressful and have detrimental impacts on an individual's wellbeing.

Improve support for students including funding assistance

It’s important that international medical students are supported right from the start of their journey through medical school. We aim to improve and standardise the support available to international medical students when they start medical school. This may include resources on wellbeing, language, culture, navigating processes and systems and highlighting financial support.

Unlike students from the UK, international medical students do not have access to the NHS Bursary, or any centralised funding pools or universal funding assistance. As a result, many struggle to pay their fees as they cannot rely upon external sources of funding provided by the UK government. The only option open to them at times, can be their universities’ financial aid team.

We must have discussions on support plans that can be implemented in the future to assist international students in paying fees, or a financial support mechanism within each medical school in the UK to offer support.

Removing disparities in entrance tests

Prospective medical students wishing to study medicine in the UK normally must complete an entrance test, either being the UCAT (formerly UKCAT) or BMAT (which is being discontinued from 2024/25). There are few universities with exceptions to this rule. The pricing of the UCAT is £70 to take in the UK, and £115 to take elsewhere (as of 2024/25).

There is only the option to take the UCAT in an applicant’s home with online proctoring (virtual invigilation) for those with medical reasons, or geographic challenges that do not allow them to attend a test centre, and there are limited applications available. In addition to this, supplementary entrance tests that some medical schools require (such as the IELTS) and their prices, pose another financial obstacle that international students may go through. These issues must be addressed so the process is fair and consistent.

Making medical school interviews more accessible

Some international students who are shortlisted for an interview with a medical school are asked to fly to the UK for an in-person interview. Depending on the notice given and the time of the interview, many students must spend large sums of money or risk their interview position being given to someone else. There are inconsistencies in whether universities allow international medical students to attend interviews virtually, and this isn’t fair. We urge all medical schools to give both home and international medical students the option to attend interviews virtually to allow all candidates equal and fair grounds to interview for a medical school place.

I believe that international medical students require more support nationally, and I am working towards this. If you’re a student reading this who requires help/support with a particular issue, please reach out to the BMA helpline service, your local MSC representative or contact the MSC directly at [email protected].

Ehsas Kakkar is a third-year medical student at Brunel University