Government Allocates £23 Million to Expand 1,783 Medical School Places in Public Universities

The Minister of Health, Mónica García, announced today to the autonomous communities that the Government will approve a royal decree to transfer nearly £23 million to Spanish public universities. This funding is intended to finance the increase and subsequent maintenance of places in medical degree courses for the 2025-2026 academic year.

Specifically, this subsidy will fund 1,783 places, of which 922 are newly created (for the first year), 642 for the second year, and 219 for the third year. In the latter two cases, the funds are used to maintain the new places created with the money already provided by the Government to the faculties for the same purpose in 2023 and 2024.

This royal decree finances an estimated amount of £12,800 in current expenses for each additional or maintained place that exceeds the previous year's figure. The maximum number of places a public faculty can create with these funds will be an additional 15% over the previous year.

The state subsidy began in 2023, alongside investments aimed at improving the teaching quality of these studies. Thanks to these funds, 706 new places were created in public universities in 2023, and in 2024 the increase was 1,548, including new and consolidated places from the previous year.

The Ministry of Health asserts that it is necessary to continue facilitating the increase of places in the medical degree to raise the number of graduates in this field in Spanish universities. This is also to improve, in the medium term, the availability of professionals in the National Health System, where it is estimated that there is already a shortage of between 5,000 and 6,000 doctors, a figure expected to rise in the coming years with the mass retirement of practitioners.