King’s College London (KCL) last week (July 7) announced that it has launched a new “fast-track medical degree” for healthcare professionals.
The “healthcare entry medicine MBBS” course is open to pharmacists with a minimum 2:1 (upper second-class honours) in the MPharm or international equivalent and “at least two years’ full-time experience working in a patient-facing role”, KCL said.
It is also available to nurses, midwives, physiotherapists, dentists, paramedics and physician associates (PAs) so that they can “transition into careers as doctors”, it added.
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The full-time, four-year course will start on August 17 2026 and applications will open in September 2025 before an October 15 deadline, it said.
The new degree comes two years after NHS England (NHSE) revealed it was looking at introducing a shortened medical degree programme for pharmacists amid plans to increase the number of medical professionals across the UK over the next 15 years.
“Next step”
KCL said that it is the “first Russell Group university in the UK to offer a fast-track medical degree for healthcare professionals”.
Its dean of medical education Professor Nicki Cohen said the new course “opens the door to a diverse pool of talented professionals who are already making a difference in patient care and wish to take the next step in their medical careers”.
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The degree will focus on “key areas such as bioscience and population health” and have “less emphasis on early clinical practice” to avoid any duplication of what students already do in their current healthcare roles, the university added.
Students will receive teaching from partner hospitals including Guy’s, King’s College and St Thomas’, and complete clinical placements “at district general hospitals across the South of England, as well as at over 350 general practices”, it said.
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Students must also sit the University Clinical Aptitude Test (UCAT) as part of the admissions process, according to KCL.
It comes as C+D this week revealed the launch of a new “top-up” online degree for pharmacy technicians to “enhance their scope of practice”.
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In November, the University of Suffolk announced plans to launch a new pharmacy school for the 2026/27 academic year.
And in September, Aston University’s pharmacy school unveiled a new “state-of-the-art” £3.3 million pharmacy training laboratory while the University of Sheffield announced that it would open its new pharmacy school from this year.
