Doctors are going to be recruited from increasingly privileged backgrounds in future if the government lifts the current tuition fee cap in its anticipated review on fees and funding later this year.

Student leaders this week called for a thorough review of medical school funding. Many medical students, paying the maximum annual tuition fee of £3,140, already face financial hardship over the five to six year course.

They warned that large parts of society will be excluded from studying medicine because of the cost, with many only being able to do so with significant parental support.

The National Union of Students (NUS) published a new document Funding Our Future: a blueprint for an alternative higher education funding system, which proposes a graduation contribution scheme to replace the current tuition fee system.

Last month, the government announced that an independent review of funding and fees would be launched following the release of a Higher Education Framework in June or July.

Tom Foley, BMA lead on student finance, commented: “The BMA agrees with the NUS that the introduction of tuition fees has been a total disaster for students that will be exacerbated further if the government lifts the current fee cap. 

“Tuition fees have done nothing to solve the chronic problem of higher education underfunding and, worse still, they have saddled many medical students with a mountain of debt.

“Graduation debt from a medical degree is expected to reach £36,000 in the coming years. Just 4% of clinical students come from the lowest two socio-economic groups and all students are now relying on £3,000 of yearly handouts from their parents – a terrible burden on working families at a time of recession.

“We will be consulting our members on the way forward as it is important in these testing economic times that we have a serious debate about how we guarantee that our university system is based on the principles of fair access.”