{"id":1349,"date":"2025-03-20T11:42:02","date_gmt":"2025-03-20T11:42:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dauk.org\/medical-student-perspectives-on-protests\/"},"modified":"2025-03-20T11:42:02","modified_gmt":"2025-03-20T11:42:02","slug":"medical-student-perspectives-on-protests","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dauk.org\/medical-student-perspectives-on-protests\/","title":{"rendered":"Blog: Medical student perspectives on protests"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

DAUK’s student committee blogs about medical students’ perspectives on protests and activism, and fears of potential repercussions.<\/strong>\r\n\r\nIn recent years, the political landscape in the UK has evolved significantly, with movements such as climate activism, pro-Palestine university encampments, and other protests emerging as central issues.\r\n\r\nWith student activism often at the forefront of such issues, many medical students may find themselves conflicted, uncertain of whether to participate in these movements due to increasing concerns over professional repercussions.\r\n\r\nDAUK\u2019s recent survey found the majority of respondents (69.4%) feel afraid of attending protests due to potential repercussions from their medical school.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Student protests<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Students have expressed fear of being penalised for engaging in activism, with one participant explaining: \u201cI always felt that, as a medical student, partaking in activism was going against the standards that we are expected to adhere to.\u201d\r\n\r\nSome students have voiced concerns that their involvement in political activism may be seen as \u2018unprofessional\u2019, and there is growing anxiety over professional consequences. One student said: \u201cMy medical school would consider it unprofessional. They have said doctors should be apolitical.\u201d\r\n\r\nAnother student expressed fear about potential retaliation from the General Medical Council (GMC), citing the suspension of doctors involved in climate action groups such as Just Stop Oil.\r\n\r\nThe overarching sentiment among students is that their right to protest is not adequately protected.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Right to protest<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

As one student noted: \u201cThe university has not gone out of its way to ensure our rights to protest are protected.\u201d\r\n\r\nAs activism in the UK increasingly faces criminalisation, medical students feel their voices are being silenced.\r\n\r\nOne student shared their anxiety about the potential impact on their future career: \u201cProtest is being increasingly criminalised in the UK and we are a highly regulated profession (GMC).\u201d\r\n\r\nAnother reflected on the fear of prejudice from university staff, stating: \u201cThe stigma and prejudice staff of the medical school will hold against me and may use to influence results when sitting exams.\u201d\r\n\r\nA particularly concerning comment came from a student who said that \u2018on pro-Palestine marches, people were being threatened with expulsion\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Solidarity<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The Doctors’ Association UK (DAUK) stands in solidarity with medical students, advocating for the protection of their right to protest and express their political beliefs without fear of professional retribution.\r\n\r\nThe ability to stand for justice, human rights, and humanitarian causes is integral to the ethos of medicine, and it is imperative the medical profession supports its students in doing so.\r\n\r\nMedical schools must provide clear guidance on how students can appropriately express their political and social views without risking professional repercussions.\r\n\r\nWith increasing instances of humanitarian events and global unrest, medical schools should take a proactive stance on educating their students on how to advocate for causes important to them, while ensuring their professional standards on protest are relevant and fit for the modern day.\r\n\r\nPlease support our work by contributing to our crowd funder<\/a> or by becoming a member<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Picture credit: Markus Spiske<\/a> on Unsplash<\/a><\/h5>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

DAUK’s student committee blogs about medical students’ perspectives on protests and activism, and fears of potential repercussions. In recent years, the political landscape in the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1505,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[65,286,391],"tags":[287,393],"class_list":["post-1349","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-dauk-news","category-guest-blog","category-students","tag-blog","tag-medical-students"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dauk.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1349","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dauk.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dauk.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dauk.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dauk.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1349"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dauk.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1349\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dauk.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1505"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dauk.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1349"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dauk.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1349"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dauk.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1349"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}