Numbers of medical and dental students
Growth in medical training
In 2009-10 there are over 32,000 students on undergraduate medical and dental programmes. The total costs for medical and dental training (including related clinical placement costs allocated to the NHS) are high. This has required any expansion of places to be centrally planned and financed with close co-operation between the BIS, DH and HEFCE to meet the needs of the NHS. Between 1997-98 and 2006-07 there was a 71 per cent increase in medical school places. Intake to English medical schools increased from 3,749 in 1997-98 to 6,194 in 2006-07 resulting in an increase to the number of doctors graduating from medical schools to around 5,684 in 2008-09.
Growth in dental training
A DH/HEFCE group was set up in 2005 to look at the expansion of dental education. In February 2006 it was announced that a new dental school in the South West would be opening in 2007, and 100 new permanent places for dental students in England would be funded following a competitive bidding process. The new dental school, which opened in September 2007, is at the multi-campus Peninsula Medical School, a partnership between the Universities of Exeter and Plymouth and the NHS within Devon and Cornwall.
Additional dental training places were also provided in other parts of the country. These include a joint project by the universities of Liverpool, Lancaster and Central Lancashire for dental education in Cumbria, and Lancashire and the establishment of a dental outreach centre in Hull by the University of Leeds.
Last updated 5 February 2010