Parents pay £15,000 for medical student children

19 April 2010

SOME families are being forced to pay as much as £15,000 to put their children through medical school, the BMA has claimed.

Spiralling levels of debt and the impact of tuition fees are being blamed for the costs of around £3120 per year, according to a report from the association on medical student finance.

The BMA surveyed 1987 UK students and two-thirds admitted they relied on parental support to pay their way. Graduates from 2009 left medical school with an average debt of £22,850 – a rise of 20 per cent on the previous year. The number of students from low-income families remained low, with just one in 20 medical students coming from the two lowest income groups.

BMA student finance lead Louise McMenemy said: “The UK is facing a growing crisis in medical student finance that many policy makers appear unwilling to address. All students are facing rising debt levels, but those studying medicine are being hit particularly hard, partly because they are often not able to take part time work as their degree is more intensive and lengthy than other undergraduate programmes.”

She said parents may struggle to contribute to their child’s medical studies as the recession continues to bite, especially if there are other children in university. She called for an end to tuition fee rises and demanded measures be included in the current higher education funding review to tackle the problem.

Access the BMA’s medical students finance survey 2008/09 at http://www.bma.org.uk/studentfinancesurveys