Responding to the results of the 2025 clinical academic survey published by the Medical Schools Council, which show a sharp fall in the number of early-career clinical academics, BMA medical academic staff committee co-chairs Professor David Strain and Dr Jonathan Gibb said:
"This survey shows the severe structural crisis affecting academic medicine. In the space of just a year, the UK has lost a quarter of early-career doctors working as medical academics and this will have a knock-on effect on the health of the population. It is medical academics who are responsible for teaching doctors of the future, developing treatments with the potential to improve millions of lives, and validating and delivering the innovation that is called for in the Government’s 10-Year Health Plan.
"Since the publication of the 10 Year Health Plan, the Government’s strategy around how to tackle the crisis in medical academic workforce planning remains lacking and the next generation of Britain’s leaders in academic medicine are being lost.
"Little action was taken following the widely unwelcome changes to the Specialised (formerly Academic) Foundation Programme imposed by NHS England, which moved from selection based on aptitude, interest and research experience towards preference informed allocation. Since then, the Office for the Strategic Co-ordination of Health Research (OSCHR), in its report 'Clinical researchers in the United Kingdom: Reversing the decline to improve population health and promote economic growth', recommended a return to selection criteria, alongside targeted actions to support increasing the number of tenured early career posts. The on-going Medical Education and Training Review now has an important opportunity to engage with clinical academics and put recommendations into practice.
"Doctors are now being discouraged from academic careers in the UK, through personal financial penalties, and the job insecurity that has arisen from lack of willingness from governments across the UK to fund the pay awards for doctors working in medical schools properly. At a time when we are facing a financial crisis in higher education, we cannot afford to lose some of our brightest graduates, historically responsible for up to 35% of university grant income, to international competitors. Ignoring this will be catastrophic to the UK’s ability to remain globally competitive in research, innovation, and medical education."
ENDS
Notes to editors
The results of the Medical Schools Council’s survey can be found here: Staffing levels of medical clinical academics - Medical Schools Council.
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