Government Must Rethink Unfair Fee Proposals, Warns BMA



The British Medical Association (BMA) has today urged ministers to rethink their proposals to increase university tuition fees to as much as £9,000 a year as MPs prepared to vote on the issue in Parliament.



Medical student leaders called on ministers to postpone the vote so a full evaluation of the financial impact of fee increases on students from low and middle income could be carried out, especially for those wanting to study long, expensive degrees like medicine.



The BMA has also submitted evidence highlighting the need for a further review to the Parliamentary body that analyses validity of Statutory Instruments (SI), the mechanism being used by the government to call a vote on this issue.



Karin Purshouse, Chair of the BMA’s Medical Students Committee said: 

“The government has not fully examined or thought through the financial impact on longer degrees of trebling tuition fees, especially for students from low and middle income families. This is despite the government conceding in its own introduction to the SI that there was evidence of students being sensitive to the cost of a degree when making their decisions about their education.



“Ministers have also not waited to assess the impact of the last increase in fees to £3,250 which were introduced in 2006. The first group of medical students paying this charge will not graduate until 2011 as medicine is at least a five-year degree.



“All students are facing increased debt levels as a result of this proposal. The BMA estimates that those studying medicine could be looking at leaving medical school with at least £70,000 of debt. This is a huge financial burden not just for the student but also their families who already having to provide £16,000 in support over the course of the five-year medical degree. Already only one in seven successful applicants to medical school comes from the lowest income groups.



“Before the government rushes through its agenda it must pause to take into account the consequences of its policies. The country could be left with a situation where in the future many gifted young people will be priced out of becoming doctors simply because they do not have the funds to study medicine. This will be an appalling loss to the NHS and patients.



“The government has announced in the past week some initiatives to help those from disadvantaged backgrounds. But it has not provided enough detail on how these policies will be implemented or evidence of what impact they would have. Ministers should wait until they have fully outlined their entire student finance package before asking MPs to vote on this important issue.”



(BMcN)