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Value of a UK medical degree for international students (VISION): a cross-sectional study

OBJECTIVES: It is estimated that NHS staff consist of over 200 different nationalities, with a reported 30.7% of doctors holding a nationality other than British. Despite this, international medical students represent 7.5% of all medical students studying in the UK and pay on average, 4–6 times more...

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Autores principales: Li, Chun Hei, Ganesananthan, Sashiananthan, Pinchemain, Trevor, Godoi, Amanda, Lim, Shan Ming, Baskaran, Ravanth, Mukhopadhyay, Srinjay, Foo, Eu Fang, Ooi, Setthasorn Zhi Yang, Woo, Timothy, Yeo, Vanessa, Sweetland, Helen
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: BMJ Publishing Group 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10335426/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37429674
http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2022-065062
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author Li, Chun Hei
Ganesananthan, Sashiananthan
Pinchemain, Trevor
Godoi, Amanda
Lim, Shan Ming
Baskaran, Ravanth
Mukhopadhyay, Srinjay
Foo, Eu Fang
Ooi, Setthasorn Zhi Yang
Woo, Timothy
Yeo, Vanessa
Sweetland, Helen
author_facet Li, Chun Hei
Ganesananthan, Sashiananthan
Pinchemain, Trevor
Godoi, Amanda
Lim, Shan Ming
Baskaran, Ravanth
Mukhopadhyay, Srinjay
Foo, Eu Fang
Ooi, Setthasorn Zhi Yang
Woo, Timothy
Yeo, Vanessa
Sweetland, Helen
author_sort Li, Chun Hei
collection PubMed
description OBJECTIVES: It is estimated that NHS staff consist of over 200 different nationalities, with a reported 30.7% of doctors holding a nationality other than British. Despite this, international medical students represent 7.5% of all medical students studying in the UK and pay on average, 4–6 times more in tuition fees when compared with the £9250 per annum (Great British Pounds (£) in 2021) paid by home students. This study’s aim and objective are to evaluate the perception of the financial cost and value of the UK medical degree for international students and their motivations for pursuing such a degree. METHODS: This is a cross-sectional observational study enquiring about international premedical, medical and medical school graduates’ perception of the value of the UK medical degree and factors influencing their decision to study in the UK. A questionnaire was developed and distributed to 24 medical schools and 64 secondary schools both internationally and across the UK. RESULTS: A total of 352 responses from 56 nationalities were recorded. 96% of international students identified clinical and academic opportunities as the most important factors to study medicine in the UK, closely followed by quality of life (88%). The least important factor was family reasons, with 39% of individuals identifying this factor. Only 4.82% of graduates in our study considered leaving the UK after training. Overall, 54% of students felt the UK degree was value for money. This belief was significantly higher in premedical students compared with existing students and graduates (71% vs 52% and 20%, p<0.001 for all comparisons). CONCLUSION: The quality of medical education and international prestige are attractive factors for international students to study medicine in the UK. However, further work is needed to ascertain reasons for the differing perceptions of the value by international students at different stages in their clinical training.
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spelling pubmed-103354262023-07-12 Value of a UK medical degree for international students (VISION): a cross-sectional study Li, Chun Hei Ganesananthan, Sashiananthan Pinchemain, Trevor Godoi, Amanda Lim, Shan Ming Baskaran, Ravanth Mukhopadhyay, Srinjay Foo, Eu Fang Ooi, Setthasorn Zhi Yang Woo, Timothy Yeo, Vanessa Sweetland, Helen BMJ Open Medical Education and Training OBJECTIVES: It is estimated that NHS staff consist of over 200 different nationalities, with a reported 30.7% of doctors holding a nationality other than British. Despite this, international medical students represent 7.5% of all medical students studying in the UK and pay on average, 4–6 times more in tuition fees when compared with the £9250 per annum (Great British Pounds (£) in 2021) paid by home students. This study’s aim and objective are to evaluate the perception of the financial cost and value of the UK medical degree for international students and their motivations for pursuing such a degree. METHODS: This is a cross-sectional observational study enquiring about international premedical, medical and medical school graduates’ perception of the value of the UK medical degree and factors influencing their decision to study in the UK. A questionnaire was developed and distributed to 24 medical schools and 64 secondary schools both internationally and across the UK. RESULTS: A total of 352 responses from 56 nationalities were recorded. 96% of international students identified clinical and academic opportunities as the most important factors to study medicine in the UK, closely followed by quality of life (88%). The least important factor was family reasons, with 39% of individuals identifying this factor. Only 4.82% of graduates in our study considered leaving the UK after training. Overall, 54% of students felt the UK degree was value for money. This belief was significantly higher in premedical students compared with existing students and graduates (71% vs 52% and 20%, p<0.001 for all comparisons). CONCLUSION: The quality of medical education and international prestige are attractive factors for international students to study medicine in the UK. However, further work is needed to ascertain reasons for the differing perceptions of the value by international students at different stages in their clinical training. BMJ Publishing Group 2023-07-10 /pmc/articles/PMC10335426/ /pubmed/37429674 http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2022-065062 Text en © Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2023. Re-use permitted under CC BY-NC. No commercial re-use. See rights and permissions. Published by BMJ. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/This is an open access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited, appropriate credit is given, any changes made indicated, and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) .
spellingShingle Medical Education and Training
Li, Chun Hei
Ganesananthan, Sashiananthan
Pinchemain, Trevor
Godoi, Amanda
Lim, Shan Ming
Baskaran, Ravanth
Mukhopadhyay, Srinjay
Foo, Eu Fang
Ooi, Setthasorn Zhi Yang
Woo, Timothy
Yeo, Vanessa
Sweetland, Helen
Value of a UK medical degree for international students (VISION): a cross-sectional study
title Value of a UK medical degree for international students (VISION): a cross-sectional study
title_full Value of a UK medical degree for international students (VISION): a cross-sectional study
title_fullStr Value of a UK medical degree for international students (VISION): a cross-sectional study
title_full_unstemmed Value of a UK medical degree for international students (VISION): a cross-sectional study
title_short Value of a UK medical degree for international students (VISION): a cross-sectional study
title_sort value of a uk medical degree for international students (vision): a cross-sectional study
topic Medical Education and Training
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10335426/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37429674
http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2022-065062
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