International Medical Student Cost Analysis: Is UK Medicine Worth It?

Degree Costs

The most obvious cost linked to UK medical school is the course fees. Fees range from around £30k a year on the lower end – often medical schools like Brunel which are newer and cater to a mainly international market – to up to £60-70k at universities like Imperial or Cambridge, with strong global brands that attract lots of overseas interest.

With the average UK student living costs being around £1000-1500 a month, it’s undeniable that course fees will make up the vast bulk of the cost for most international students studying medicine in the UK.

As an international student, you won’t be eligible for support from the UK government like student loans or the NHS bursary, but that doesn’t mean you will definitely have to cover the full course fees. You can look at any scholarships or support universities offer, although these are often limited for international students, or scholarships on offer in your home country. Some governments will fund students to study abroad if they promise to return to work in their home country after graduating – make sure you explore all your options.

If you have dual nationality, or are already living in the UK, it’s worth scrutinising admissions and loan policies super-closely: you don’t want to assume you’ll be assessed as a home fee status student and get sent a bill for international fees. Equally, if you’re one or two years off settled status or a citizenship application, taking a gap year or applying for deferred entry could make UK medical school much more affordable.

Hidden Costs

However, costs go beyond course fees, so it’s worth making sure you have a fully planned out budget for your time in the UK. Some things worth considering are:

• The immigration health surcharge: international students are required to pay this fee, currently £776/year, to use the NHS while in the UK.
• Visa costs: it currently costs £558 to apply for a student visa, and you may need to pay this again to extend your stay as medical degrees can be more than 5 years, or to switch to a graduate visa if you want to stay in the UK afterwards
• Living costs: as discussed above, you’ll need to be able to pay for accommodation, travel, food, and everything else in the UK. Even if you plan on living frugally, the UK government will require you to demonstrate that you can pay your course fees and have enough money to support yourself for a year in the UK to get a student visa (this requirement can be waived depending on the country you’re from ), so you’ll potentially need to be able to show a pretty large amount of cash sitting in your bank account.
• Trips home: think about how often you’d want to travel home and how much this would cost. Especially in the early years of the course, you can have relatively long summer and Easter holidays, which you may not want to spend alone in the UK.

What You Gain

The most obvious benefit of studying medicine in the UK is that you will be on track to work as a doctor in the UK. As a graduate from a UK medical school, you’ll be guaranteed Foundation Programme jobs for the first two years after graduating, with a starting base salary of just over £40k in England, although you could be working anywhere in the UK. After that, you’ll be eligible to apply for specialty training in the UK and can train to be a consultant, with a starting salary of over £110k after around 7 years of training, or a GP, with a starting salary of around £78k after 3 years of training.

Aside from salary, assuming you want to work as a doctor in the UK for the rest of your life, this is definitely the easiest way to do that. Other countries’ medical degrees are of course recognised by the UK, but you will generally have to take extra exams, like the PLAB, and recent legislation prioritising UK medical graduates for jobs means it will likely become harder for non-UK grads to train in the UK.

What To Consider

Some key things to factor in to your decision, aside from the financial maths, are:

• Where do you see yourself working long-term? If it’s the UK, it’s a no brainer to study here. If it’s elsewhere, you’ll want to do your research and be aware that the landscape can change at any time; for example, since Brexit, UK medical degrees are now not automatically recognised in most of Europe.
• How long do you want to spend at university? For example, while US and Canadian medical degrees are shorter, you have to have done a previous degree, so it may take more than 5 years in the long run. However, North American medical training is faster, if more intense.
• Does citizenship factor in? A UK medical degree is usually five years or longer, then two years guaranteed work in the Foundation Programme, making inroads into the amount of time you’d need to spend in the UK to get settled status or citizenship.