Aston University graduates first new doctors from its medical school

Aston University’s first cohort of medical students graduated at a ceremony held at Eastside Rooms next to the Aston University campus in Birmingham

Aston Medical School welcomed its first students in 2018 and today has graduated 56 new doctors. This follows the GMC Council’s decision in May 2023 to grant full approval to the school, meaning that Aston University can now award its own primary medical qualifications.

Professor Helen Cameron, Dean of Medical Education at Aston Medical School, said that the medical school has benefitted from the diverse pioneer cohort, including both home and international students, who have contributed much to developing the new medical school community.

From the outset, Aston Medical School has focused on supporting and nurturing those students, whilst challenging them academically. Throughout, there has been an emphasis on independent critical thinking skills and a caring and empathetic approach to others, to ensure graduates can work compassionately with patients as partners, within a healthcare team.

A key feature of Aston Medical School is its focus on social mobility. Medicine is seen as an elite profession, with one government report in 2011 finding that just 20% of schools in the UK account for 80% of all medical school applications. The school is seeking to be more inclusive, with up to 40% of places offered to students who meet specified widening participation criteria.

As part of its widening participation efforts, Aston University runs two programmes designed to attract and assist those from non-traditional backgrounds into healthcare.

The Keith Bradshaw Introduction to Healthcare programme is designed to increase awareness of the various careers within the healthcare sector for school students in years 8, 9 and 10 in the West Midlands. The Wesleyan Pathway to Medicine programme is aimed at those in school years 12 and 13. The 18-month programme is completed alongside students’ A level studies, and includes subject taster days, work experience preparation sessions, revision boot camps, science academic tutoring and specialist interview preparation workshops.

Amina Abib and Sadia Bibi both completed what was then known as the Sir Doug Ellis Pathway to Healthcare programme, before gaining a place at Aston Medical School.

Amina said that the programme was “instrumental” in preparing her for her medical degree. She is the first person in her family to go to university and received the Sir Doug Ellis Scholarship which helped financially. Since completing her exams, she has undertaken an elective in Tanzania, and will move to Scotland for her F1 and F2 years.

“The thing that I found really helpful about the Pathway to Healthcare programme was that I was able to organise work experience through this programme.” she said. “We did a summer school in between year 12 and year 13, which was lovely, and we also got to explore many different healthcare professions.”

There are no doctors in Sadia’s family and after deciding that she wanted to study medicine, she wasn’t sure where to turn for advice. A science teacher gave her an application form for the Pathway to Medicine programme.

“I think before I started university I was focused on medicine and medicine was the only thing that I knew but because they brought in a lot of allied healthcare professionals, I learnt more about that and it really helped me make a decision about what I wanted to do in the future,” Sadia said.

Professor Cameron said: “This is a most exciting time in our history. In 2018 we admitted a class of committed UK and international students from many different cultures and walks of life, and now are so proud to see them join the NHS workforce on its 75th birthday to serve the local communities. We look forward to hearing about their future careers and achievements and hope that one day other young people might be inspired when they see a doctor ‘just like me’.”