Meeting of the Parliament (Hybrid)10 March 2021
I join others in paying tribute to the service of Jeane Freeman. She has been a responsive and effective minister, and she has put in quite a shift through the pandemic. She deserves a good retirement.
The legislation will remove a unique, unnecessary and unintentional prohibition—that on granting degrees in medicine by St Andrews university. Despite the restrictions, the university has worked hard to make a contribution to the NHS, through its bachelor of science in medicine qualification, through which students can transfer to other universities to graduate as doctors. As we have heard, more recently it established a medicine degree programme in partnership with the University of Dundee, from which it had separated in 1966—the event that created the need for the bill.
We know that the ScotGEM degree is designed for students who have already graduated in other subjects. It is an effective route into medicine. It focuses on primary care and on remote and rural medicine, and it is founded on community-based learning. The return to a level playing field will allow St Andrews university to contribute fully to patient care by graduating doctors and awarding degrees in an unfettered way; by retaining students in Scotland; by participating equally with other universities in medical research; by sponsoring important clinical trials; and by deepening its relationship with the NHS.
The university plays it part in Scottish life. Take the pandemic. Along with university staff, ScotGEM students have been involved in vaccination roll-out and have helped to match student volunteers with front-line workers who are in need of support. Some university medicine staff have been integral to the management of the response by Public Health Scotland and the Scottish Government.
However, that engagement is deeper and longer. As part of ScotGEM, the university has employed 37 general clinical mentors across four health boards, who provide 47 clinical sessions per week to general practice, at a time when we know that recruitment is particularly challenging. The success of the ScotGEM programme model has been recognised by NHS Education Scotland, which gave the GCM team the award of “Highly Commended” at its medical directorate awards.
The university works closely with the University of the Highlands and Islands in delivering the medicine programme. Students are currently placed in 72 general practices.
There is an optional bursary for students who choose to bond to NHS Scotland by committing to a period of one year’s service for each year for which the bursary is taken, up to a maximum of four years, and 94 per cent of students take up the bursary, which shows the commitment to Scotland of the university and the students. The ScotGEM programme illustrates that they have been bucking the trend and that it has been widening access. There are more applicants from remote and rural areas and 28 per cent of entrants to ScotGEM lived in the Scottish index of multiple deprivation bottom 40 per cent postcode areas. Traditionally, the figure was just 20 per cent. Retention of students in the first few years of the programme is 100 per cent, which is quite incredible.
I have made all those points to show that the University of St Andrews is part of Scotland. It is reaching out to all parts of society and is part of our NHS. Of course, the bill will correct an anomaly from 55 years ago, but more important is that it recognises that the University of St Andrews is committed to Scotland and to what matters.
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