Medical school plan brought forward after NHS plea

By the fifth year, 350 students are expected to be studying at the medical school

The University of Hertfordshire has said its new medical school will now open a year ahead of schedule, in September 2026.

Based in Hatfield, it will be the first of its kind in the county and will recruit up to 70 students a year to train as doctors.

The school will offer a five-year, bachelor of medicine and bachelor of surgery (MBBS) degree and recruitment has already started.

Prof Mairi Watson, deputy vice chancellor of the university, said: "We have brought this forward in response to a wider need for more doctors in the NHS and for more integrated care across the NHS."

Prof Mairi Watson said the opening had been brought forward "in response to a wider need for more doctors in the NHS"

Hertfordshire Medical School will have a dedicated space in a specially refurbished building on the College Lane campus.

Prof Watson said with medical schools in Cambridge and north London, having one in Hertfordshire was "long overdue".

She added: "By the fifth year there will be 350 medical students who will be working during their placements in Herts, Bedfordshire and west Essex".

According to the University there are 0.5 general practitioners (GPs) for every 1,000 patients in Hertfordshire compared to 2.8 nationally.

The announcement coincided with Health Secretary Wes Streeting’s calls for a "no-holds-barred, sweeping review" of NHS performance in England at the NHS providers conference earlier this month.

Prof Watson said building the medical school was a "very expensive endeavour" but "it won't just be the medical school that opens in 2026".

She said the university was a "good way along the journey in its plans for a new Health Building which will cater for both doctors and the rest of its allied NHS professionals".

She added that recruiting international students was "a very common way to start medical schools in the UK, but that those international students will be here in the UK and undertaking their placements here and many will stay once they graduate".