Closed petition Student Loans for Graduates entering Undergraduate Medical Degrees

Closed on 9 July 2013

Any graduate undertaking undergraduate (UG) Medicine is not entitled to a tuition fee loan from the Student Loans Company. With the tuition fee rise from September 2012, a student starting UG Medicine as second degree will be forced to self fund £9,000 per year for 4 years. I feel this is an unfair amount, totalling £36,000, for anyone to afford without any funding. When the tuition fee rise was introduced, I feel this policy of not funding graduates studying UG Medicine should have been addressed with some sensibility and the realisation that £9,000 per year is unrealistic for most graduates to afford. The government should introduce, in my opinion, some form of tuition fee support for graduates entering UG Medicine; whether these are at an increased interest rate, reduced loan amount or a loan for only some of the years of study. The employment rate of medical students shows this will be a worthwhile investment for Student Finance and the government who are guaranteed a return.