BMA strongly opposes changes to foundation programme applications

The BMA has said it “strongly opposed” the decision to exclude additional degrees and publications from the points system used to allocate foundation training posts, which is set to take effect from 2023.1

A letter to medical schools from the co-chairs of the UK Foundation Programme Office (UKFPO) Tom Lawson and Mike Masding said that the office had decided to make the changes because additional degrees and publications were no longer a useful way of distinguishing between candidates.

“The percentage of applicants seeking points for additional achievements has increased from 30% to 70% in the most recent application round, resulting in less differentiation between application scores,” they said.2 The co-chairs also acknowledged that “the opportunities for students to obtain additional degrees are inconsistent.”

The BMA said that the changes were first proposed in February 2020, and that it strongly opposed them.

Medical schools were only informed of the decision in a letter from the UKFPO dated 30 November 20202 and many students were not told about the changes, which came to light through discussions on social media on 8 December.

The education lead at the Medical Schools Council, Vassili Crispi, said that 2023 had been chosen to introduce the change as a “compromise.” UK statutory education bodies wanted additional degrees to be excluded immediately, whereas the BMA and other stakeholders opposed the change altogether.

The changes will affect many students currently taking an intercalated degree, who were under the impression that it would count towards their foundation applications. Medical students are petitioning1 for the changes to be pushed back to 2024 to enable the cohort “to complete their intercalation year with the knowledge they will receive the points they were promised on commencing it.”

Becky Bates, co-chair of the BMA medical students committee, tweeted, “Please rest assured we’re aware & working away behind the scenes! We have been pushing against it (originally it was scheduled for this application cycle but we got it pushed back) - completely agree it’s incredibly disappointing when people have already made big decisions.”3

In an open letter to the UKFPO,4 University of Manchester medical students Hetty Jane Breed, Marie-Therese Angus, and Sameerah Jawaid Khan said it was a big a decision to take an intercalated degree. “The decision to intercalate is not an easy one—an extra year of university has financial and emotional impacts, not to mention it is a year out of placement,” they wrote. “For current intercalating students (if they are intercalating between third and fourth year), their graduation will be in 2023, the year these changes are proposed to come into effect. The intercalated degrees they are currently working on will therefore have no impact on their foundation applications.”4

Darren McGrugan, an intercalating medical student at the University of Manchester, said that he would not have intercalated had he known about the changes. “I understand the reasoning behind the change to the points system and I do agree with it. If I was fully informed at the time of application, I would not have made the decision to intercalate as I was unsure about uprooting my life and moving back to Manchester (after being relocated to Preston for my clinical years) and the financial implications of studying for an extra year at university. The only factor in my application was the incentive of the points,” he told The BMJ.

The new scoring system also affects those who go to medical school as a postgraduate student, as well as those who have spent time involved in research and publication.

It is still unclear how the weighting will shift between the remaining factors in the application process for students applying to foundation posts from 2023 onwards.