Thread: Getting married: Transferring medical schools, Canada to UK

Hey everyone,

I would love any input since i am in a bit of a dilemma, i am a first year medical student in Canada, and my boyfriend and I are getting married, he lives in the UK and i still have 3 years ahead of me. Are there any possibilities of transferring to a medical school in the UK? Of course i will be a british/ EU citizen so international student issues are not a problem. But would transfers from a canadian medical school be accepted?

Thanks so much, any advice would be much loved.

Where abouts are you re-locating? If it were me, I would just ride out the 3 years in Canada.

I agree with mellsworth21 that staying in Canada might be the best or most likely option for a number of reasons.

• Check out the citizenship issue in detail with the High Commission - I thought you needed to be UK-resident for 3 years?
• Check out separately the precise UK university rules on international student criteria versus home student.
• Quality med. schools all over the world are rather mean when it comes to transfers - they don't like it.
• You might get in, but be required to start over again. The schools may cite differences in the curriculum as justification.
• Be aware that the majority of our med. courses are 5-year. Graduate entry 4-year courses only began a few years ago.

If you do decide to go ahead send a really good CV with references to a number of target universities. Do not rely solely on compassionate grounds ("I want to be with my husband"). Rather, persuade them that you will be an asset to their course: admissions tutors are always on the lookout for the exceptional person who will bring character, unusual experiences or intellect to their cohort of students.

Hi devinaw,

I have to confirm what you've heard here, the ground for getting home fees in the UK is being a citizen - even with marriage that takes 3 years. The laws in place also don't allow you to be re-assessed if you become a citizen part-way through the course, which is really stupid.

I'm not up on what the cost of tuition is like in Canada for Canadians, but if it is anything like UK for Brits, then you'd be wise to take the cheap education on offer.

I also think that a transfer is unlikely, mostly due to concerns over course compatibility, so you'd probably have to start from scratch (just my opinion/guess).

Finally, there are issues around international students taking part in the 4-year "GEP" courses here... you may well have to become a citizen first, then go for GEP.

I know it's not what you asked about, but what about his prospects of moving to Canada? Post-graduation, I've heard that Canada is really hard to get into for foreign medical graduates, so if you wanted to end up practising there, you'd be better placed by completing there.

Congratulations on getting married!!

You've probably already long made your decision...but I would look at where you want to practice ultimately. If you want to come back to Canada to work then I would stick it out here. It is very difficult to return to Canada as an IMG if you want to get a residency here (though they are taking steps to make it easier).

I don't know what the licensing is like in the UK but if you want to stay there when you are done I'd just take this year as 'prep' and head to a school there.

Just my thoughts.

Check out the General Medical Council (UK) guidelines for IMGs:
www(dot)gmc-uk(dot)org/doctors/imgs(dot)asp