International doctors now make up more than a quarter of the UK’s postgraduate training cohort, and the GMC warns that proposed eligibility thresholds based on NHS experience could have immediate pipeline effects.  

According to the GMC’s Workforce report 2025, there were 79,171 doctors in training across the UK in 2024. Of these, 57,144 (72%) were UK graduates and 22,027 (28%) were nonUK graduates. The report notes this represents a substantial shift since 2020: nonUK doctors in training grew from 13,959 in 2020 to 22,027 in 2024, raising the nonUK share of trainees from 21% to 28%.  

The report situates this trend within a broader policy debate: the UK Government has stated an ambition to reduce the proportion of nonUK doctors in training and prioritise opportunities for UK graduates in England. One proposed mechanism is a threshold on years working in the NHS before eligibility for postgraduate training.  

The GMC’s analysis suggests such thresholds would not stop nonUK doctors entering postgraduate training, but could cause shortterm disruption, depending on how they are set. 

The report estimates that, among nonUK PMQ doctors who were in training in 2024: 

• 42% had under two years between taking up a UK licence and entering postgraduate training. 

• 18% (4,030 doctors) entered training in the same year they took up a licence.  

These figures imply that any requirement for a minimum period of UK experience would immediately reduce eligibility for a sizable segment of nonUK applicants, at least temporarily until cohorts accumulate the required time. 

The report also notes that nonUK doctors often move into training after several years in nontraining roles (such as locally employed posts). As a result, it states that 58% of nonUK trainees in 2024 did have at least two years’ UK experience prior to entering training, indicating that experience thresholds would not eliminate international participation but would shift its timing and composition.  

Why it matters: The GMC argues that shifts in eligibility would not be evenly distributed across specialties. The report highlights the potential for “greater extent” impacts in programmes with historically higher nonUK proportions, specifically naming general practice and psychiatry. This is particularly significant given general practice’s role in service delivery and the report’s finding that half of 2024’s GP ST1 intake qualified outside the UK.  

The report’s broader message is that workforce policy needs to account for how training, migration incentives and nontraining service roles interact. Training remains a motivator for many doctors migrating to the UK; if training becomes less realistic, the report suggests the UK could lose a key pull factor for international talent.