‘Medicine has a class ceiling – and only investment can change this’

Following the Government’s announcement that it will fund ‘medicine access courses’ to increase deprived area students, Roheel Ahmar and Ohemaa Asare of the BMA medical student committee argue that there is still a way to go

From its very conception, medicine has always had a class ceiling. Class, gender, and race have always shaped who practises medicine, and, too often, how medicine is practised. We would hope the playing field is levelling out, but even today working class doctors make up just 13% of the workforce. This is bad for everyone, including patients – a medical workforce that reflects the diversity of the UK population is one that is better equipped to understand and care for it.

The Government’s expansion of widening participation schemes for medical students is a much-needed step in the right direction, but we still have a long way to go to break down these hefty barriers into the profession. Getting into medical school is the first hurdle, and opening the door here in the first place is crucial – but if we don’t give these students the financial support they need to make it to graduation day, it will just be shut back in their face.

Our survey, published earlier this year, unearthed the devastating reality that four-in-ten medical students have considered leaving their course because they can’t afford it. We heard back from 100 students who admitted to resorting to food banks. As you can imagine, most of them came from widening participation backgrounds.

Medicine is one of the longest and most financially demanding university degrees in the UK, yet students face a steep and often overlooked collapse in support during its final years. Maintenance funding drops sharply, replaced by a limited NHS bursary that can leave students thousands of pounds worse off each year. In the 2025/2026 year, students in London have a drop of around £6,000 that year – elsewhere it’s estimated around £4,500. This is an earth-shattering blow to many students, especially those who don’t have a financial support network around them. Too often it is the breaking point where they face the reality that they maybe just can’t afford to stay at med school.

We know widening participation students who have come to us in desperation, sharing the lengths they’ve gone to, to try keep afloat. That they’ve been sleeping in the library to cut down on bills, using food banks, or working three jobs to try and make ends meet and missing class and placement as a result. They describe their last years as a ‘fight for survival,’ constantly trying to balance working enough to make rent while being physically and mentally present enough in class to make the grades. They’re exhausted and burned out before they even put on a pair of scrubs as an NHS doctor.

It is hardly surprising, then, that many students think twice before applying, or struggle to make it to graduation. If widening participation is to mean anything, it cannot end with an acceptance letter.

If the Government is serious about diversifying the workforce and securing the doctors the NHS needs, they must match access schemes with meaningful financial support. This means full maintenance loan funding throughout medical school, and serious action to reduce the severe burden of student debt graduates carry into the NHS.

Until then, too many talented and dedicated future doctors will still be priced out before they qualify. The footing here is still far from equal, and we’re ready to work with the Government to try and level the playing field.

Roheel Ahmar and Ohemaa Asare are the BMA medical student committee deputy co-chairs for Widening Participation