Advances in Medical Education and Practice (Dec 2019)
The United Kingdom Foundation Programme Application: Does Current Literature Unfairly Criticize It?
Abstract
Ali Abdall-Razak, Riddhi Shenoy Imperial College School of Medicine, London SW7 2AZ, UKCorrespondence: Ali Abdall-Razak Tel +44 79 201 4001Email [email protected] application to the United Kingdom foundation programme (UKFP) is a generally uncompetitive process. Across the country, there are 20 foundation schools that a graduate can rank, in order of their preference. Each foundation school will have a specific number of positions available and, depending on a variety of reasons, will receive different levels of application of a first-preference basis. Overall, across the 20 schools, 6998 positions were advertised in 2019, with 7421 first-preference applications made – putting the overall competition ratio at 1.06 applications per position.1 Of course, while some foundation schools, such asWest Midlands North (which received just 117 first-preference applications to its 252 positions) are entirely uncompetitive, others, such as the North Central and East London foundation school (which received 672 first-preference applications to its 337 positions) are far more competitive.
