Million Plus

The university has grown and invested in health-related disciplines, working in partnership with South Tyneside and Sunderland NHS Trust, the GP alliance and local charities to respond to the skills shortage for healthcare professionals facing the region; address heath inequalities; and tackle the significant underrepresentation of medical students from both the north-east (who accounted for just 4% of the national medical school intake in 2017) and from the least advantaged socio-economic groups more generally. In 2019, the University opened one of five new publicly funded medical schools.
Alongside this, it runs the Mini Medics programme for primary and secondary schools in the north-east to encourage children as young as seven to aspire to be doctors and train close to home; as well as initiatives such as a summer school to help those with the talent, but not the traditional background for medicine, to gain the confidence to apply.