JCST fee for trainees frozen for 2019-20

04 Mar 2019

The Surgical Royal Colleges of the UK and Ireland are committed to maintaining the highest standards of surgical training. Together, via the Joint Committee on Surgical Training (JCST), the Colleges ensure the delivery of a number of services. These include advising our trainees and a variety of stakeholders on all matters related to surgical training; enrolling, monitoring and supporting surgical trainees across the UK and Ireland, and making recommendations for certification. The functions of JCST also include: providing a bespoke helpdesk service; developing, maintaining, updating and delivering the curriculum for all 10 surgical specialties and Core Surgery, and developing and maintaining the online training management system; and supporting national quality assurance and local quality management processes for surgical training programmes across the UK and Ireland. The JCST fee helps cover the running costs of all these essential services.

The Colleges recognise the significant financial pressures being placed on trainees and have decided to freeze the JCST fee at £260 for 2019-20, with the intention to hold it at this level for a further two years beyond that, to August 2022, subject to affordability. This would result in the fee having been held at its current level for five years.

The Colleges continue to be committed to the development of the Intercollegiate Surgical Curriculum Programme (ISCP) to make it more accessible and flexible for all users and to the continued high standard of customer service delivered by the JCST.

Category: Workforce