Expanding recruitment to medical school: the motivations for and perceived barriers to entry of non-science entrants to a graduate-entry medical course: a qualitative study.

Publication date: Dec 18, 2025

Entering medical school as a graduate is an increasingly well-worn route to becoming a doctor in the UK. Recent expansion in medical school places and four-year graduate-entry (GEM) programmes will likely further increase the number of medical students with a previous degree. A growing number of GEM courses accept graduates with an undergraduate degree in a ‘non-science’ subject. However, the pre-entry and application experiences of these entrants to GEM degrees in the UK remain under-explored. In the context of expanding medical school places to applicants with increasingly diverse educational backgrounds, we investigated this cohort’s motivations for studying medicine and perceived barriers to entry into medical school. 12 semi-structured interviews were conducted with students on the GEM MBChB programme at Warwick Medical School (WMS). We applied descriptive thematic analysis to the data, coding verbatim transcripts to generate themes. Overarching themes for motivations were: educational, professional and personal factors. These were divided into sub-themes: educational factors were categorised as occurring at school, university or postgraduation. Professional factors included the transferability of existing skills and experience, and the perceived job satisfaction, career stability and progression of a career in medicine, which participants contrasted with previous professional experiences. Personal factors included changing direction during the COVID-19 pandemic, experiences as (a friend/relative of) a patient and influence from others. Participants reported several perceived barriers to entry into medical school: demanding entrance tests and eligibility requirements, lack of awareness about programmes accepting non-science graduates, academic anxieties, and a fear of falling behind in ‘life stages’. Additional obstacles to entry into medical school faced by non-science graduates undermine their potential as future doctors. Reviewing entrance requirements and distributing recruitment material to non-science graduates could dismantle some of these barriers.

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