It’s time to lift the medical student cap

Gaining a place in medical school has always been a lottery, made even more difficult for aspiring doctors this year. For those who failed to achieve their A level conditional offer grades, this will come as a hard blow and may seem grossly unfair.

Some students are entitled to feel victims of the A level grade inflation in 2020 and 2021 when exams were cancelled due to the Covid pandemic and acceptance to medical school was determined by over-generous teacher-assessed predicted grades. As the government returns the cap on the number of medical school places to approaching pre-pandemic levels, fewer places have been offered to students for 2022 entry and examination boards have been directed to reduce the number of top grades. For England, Wales and Northern Ireland, A and A* grades have been reduced from 45 to 36 per cent. This year’s students are no less bright than those in the previous two years but will achieve poorer grades and fewer opportunities as a result of these manipulations.