The U.K. government subsidizes the cost of studying certain health care courses, like medicine, which is typically a five-year course. This means it only allocates a certain number of places to study medicine at U.K. colleges per year.
The cost of a medical degree to the U.K. taxpayer is estimated to be around £185,000, according to the Medical Schools Council, an organization which represents U.K. medical schools.
According to MSC data, the number of applications to study medicine in 2021 rose by nearly 21% on the previous year. By comparison, the data published by MSC showed applications to study medicine rose by close to 6% between 2019 and 2020, indicating an overall jump in demand for the course in 2021.