Medical student competition 2026
Be in with a chance of winning a £600 voucher by entering the GMC and Medical Schools Council student competition.
Each year, we run a competition for UK medical students with the Medical Schools Council. By entering our competition, you can build your professional knowledge, strengthen your decision-making skills, and demonstrate your commitment to the standards expected in clinical practice.
For this year’s student professionalism competition, we’re asking students at UK medical schools to create engaging online content that helps others recognise and respond to unacceptable behaviours by being an active bystander.
Unacceptable behaviours include bullying, harassment, discrimination, and sexual misconduct toward colleagues or patients.
We set clear expectations in Good medical practice and in Achieving good medical practice that doctors have a responsibility to recognise, and take steps to address, unacceptable behaviours. One way to do this is by being an active bystander. But what does this mean for medical students?
To help develop the content, you might want to consider questions such as:
- How does being an active bystander link to our guidance?
- Why is it an important part of a doctor’s professional practice to be an active bystander? What might be the impacts of doing so?
- How might being an active bystander benefit patients?
- How can medical students develop confidence in practising this within the limits of their competence and role?
You have until midday on Wednesday 7 October 2026 to take part.
The winning entry will receive a £600 voucher, and the content will be shared with medical schools across the UK and across the GMC’s social media channels. Two runner-up entries will be awarded a £200 voucher each.
What are we looking for?
We want you to think creatively and produce online content that helps medical students understand two key things:
- Why recognising and addressing unacceptable behaviours is a professional duty, as outlined in Good medical practice and in Achieving good medical practice.
- How to be an active bystander when witnessing behaviour that undermines safety, dignity, or professionalism.
Your entry must cover both points.
You can enter on your own or in a team of up to six. You must all be students at a UK medical school, though you don’t have to be attending the same medical school.
You can create one of the following:
- content for social media: TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, or YouTube.
- a podcast
- a vlog or blog
The content should be something your fellow medical students could access anywhere and in their own time. We want you to consider how students might engage with the content in real-life settings and to make sure it’s accessible – for example, by including subtitles. As such, your entry should take no more than 10 minutes to watch, read, or listen to.
As well as Good medical practice and Achieving good medical practice, the following resources may be helpful:
- Leadership and management for all doctors - professional standards - GMC
- Speaking up - ethical topic - GMC
Remember, we’ll be looking at how well you understand and can explain the importance of recognising and addressing unacceptable behaviours and being an active bystander, rather than your digital skills.
Previous winners
Contact us
For further details on any of these resources, please email quality@gmc-uk.org
