It is a great shame that Alan Milburn decided to attack the medical profession for a mythical brand of elitism in his recent report on social inclusion, rather than showing some courage and tackling the corrosive legacy of tuition fees that his government has bequeathed to students and their parents.
Aspiring doctors face a costly route to qualification. An expensive five to six year course charging £3,140 per year in tuition fees includes a host of hidden financial costs, such as an intensive 48-week term that doesn’t allow much time for paid work and expensive materials and travel costs.
Students are now facing an estimated graduation debt of £37,000, and that is only a projected average, with many students graduating with much more.
The BMA estimates that this pressure is resulting in parents having to provide £3,000 a year in financial support to their children - a clear deterrent to those with the ability, but not the bank balance, to complete a medical degree.
If the review on tuition fees expected later this year recommends lifting the current cap medicine will only be open to those affluent individuals who can afford to pay. Figures suggested have ranged from £5,000 to anything up to £10,000. This would have a devastating effect on the future medical workforce.
It is therefore disappointing - to say the very least - that Alan Milburn’s report has left the subject virtually untouched. His one suggestion to waive fees for students living at home is an empty policy as large numbers of students do not live within travelling distance of the UK’s 32 medical schools.
The medical profession is working hard to increase social inclusion and we endorse plans for better career services and mentoring schemes. But if we are really to tackle this problem, politicians like Milburn must put an end to the rhetoric and lift the crippling financial cost of education that threatens to stifle the ambitions of thousands of talented students.
Suggesting that the projected astronomical debt figures are not a deterrent to those students from lower socio economic groups is very short sighted and with only 11% of medical students coming from the lowest three groups, this is unlikely to improve.
The government needs to recognise the financial barriers to medical education, and seriously consider its policy on tuition fees. There has got to be a more appropriate solution to the higher education funding black-hole, which does not result in the financial devastation of generations of students.
Read Jerry Nelson’s view.
Read the BMA’s view.
Tags: Recruitment, Tuition fees
