The University of Highlands and Islands (UHI) Inverness has launched a new course designed to provide students with a route into studying medicine and pharmacy degrees in Aberdeen. 

Announced yesterday, the ‘Highland Pathway to Healthcare: Medicine & Pharmacy’ programme is open to UHI students in their sixth year and promises those who pass the course an interview at Robert Gordon University (RGU) for its pharmacy degree or the University of Aberdeen for its medicine degree. 

Strengthening the future workforce 

The partnership between the education providers hopes to address “long-standing challenges around access to higher education in the Highlands” and strengthen the “future local healthcare workforce”. 

The programme has been designed with “non-traditional students” and “those from rural communities” in mind and aims to “open up learning and career opportunities in healthcare for Highland students who might otherwise face barriers to accessing degree programmes”. 

Read more: Pharmacy First used by over a third of people in Scotland 

Delivered on the UHI Inverness campus from August next year, the course will feature HNC Applied Science and degree-level modules alongside workshops, simulation activities and guest lecturers with expert healthcare professionals. 

Those who complete the one-year programme will obtain a Certificate in Higher Education, and pupils who are young carers, care-experienced, in receipt of free school meals or an Education Maintenance Allowance are particularly encouraged to apply. 

Improve access for “under-represented and disadvantaged groups” 

UHI Inverness interim principal and chief executive Dr Lindsay Snodgrass said the course will allow students “to remain in their home region while giving them access to healthcare professionals who will share their expertise, providing an excellent academic foundation for their next steps in education”. 

“An important focus of this course is improving access to higher education for under-represented and disadvantaged groups, which is a priority for us at UHI Inverness as well as a national priority,” she added. 

Read more: Access to GLP-1s varies ‘widely’ across Scotland, new report finds 

The Highland Council’s assistant chief executive Kate Lackie said that “widening access to medicine and pharmacy today will develop the well-skilled and educated workforce of tomorrow, in turn helping to sustain and enhance the health services on which we all rely.” 

NHS Highland medical director Dr Boyd Peters echoed this and said he hoped for “a strong uptake” of the programme, adding that “the Highland area needs future doctors and pharmacists” and the course “will play an important role in developing the next generation of healthcare professionals” for the region. 

Read more: Scotland dispensing and services costs rise nearly 30% in 10 years 

This comes after official figures revealed a 59% increase in the number of people using Pharmacy First Scotland over the last five years. 

And it follows new research by the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry revealing that access to weight loss drugs in Scotland can “vary widely between NHS boards”.