Speech from the Chairman of the Medical Students Committee, Ms Jennie Ciechan
Tuesday 1 July 2003
Chairman, Representative Body.
It has been an exciting, and at times deeply disappointing year, in the world of medical education. The diversity in curriculum and the opportunities for personal development have never been greater.
The increasing number of medical schools and student places, the changing methods of selection, study and assessment and the proposals for the reform of the SHO grade have provided us with limitless opportunities to influence the make-up and training of tomorrow’s doctors.
Sadly the funding arrangements for medical students in the UK have become ever more unsatisfactory and the elitism so prevalent in medicine has continued to demand our greatest efforts. Towards this end, the MSC has been striving tirelessly to improve the academic, financial and personal lives of medical students throughout the UK.
As a committee the MSC has flourished. Our improved status within the Association, an increase in staffing support and the successful restructuring of the committee has increased our productivity beyond our expectations. Intra-school committees’ have grown from strength to strength and the variety and depth of work we have covered is far too great to do it justice here. Please take the time to read our annual report and speak to the students represented at this ARM. I am confident that you will be impressed with the drive and determination of the students and the benefits they are bringing both to the BMA and the medical workforce. And I would plea to you that you remember this as we discuss the reform of the association later today. Our increased profile within the BMA has been crucial to our increased productivity and success.
This year saw the release of Medicine in the 21st Century – a document which concludes two years of consultation and deliberation by the medical students committee. This policy document brings together best practice in medical education throughout the UK and details the content, support mechanisms and career advice that would be available at an ideal medical school. The work has been warmly received by external organisations, particularly the Council of Heads of Medical Schools and the General Medical Council and will form the foundation of much of our work within individual medical schools.
September saw the birth of two new medical courses - East Anglia and Penninsula. As with the graduate programmes which continue to expand in England and Wales, these medical schools have created diversity in the medical student population as never seen before and the benefits of this are already being reaped. No one who attended the 10th anniversary of the medical student conference in March this year could have failed to be impressed with the quality of the debate as school-leavers, nurses, lawyers, economists and teachers demonstrated their drive and enthusiasm towards shaping and influencing education, health and social policy in the UK. Such a range of experience and heritage with in the medical workforce can only be of benefit to patient care and the MSC wholeheartedly welcomes such progress.
Yet whilst applications from mature and graduate medical students rise, applications from school-leavers continue to fall and the January publication of the long awaited White Paper on the Future of Higher Education will have done nothing to help this.
This paper proposes to allow institutions to charge differential fees of up to £3000 per year, and even more after 2009! Let’s not be fooled – it’s likely that most, if not all medical schools will charge the maximum amount possible. So the cost of a medical degree will be £15000 before a student even thinks about paying their living expenses, the cost of transport or buying any text books or equipment.
For those students wishing to take an intercalated degree or on a six year course, fees alone will rise to £18,000. How high will they rise in 2009 when it is proposed that they will rise by over £13000 for medical students in just two years?
When the cost of food, accommodation, travel and the expense of course resources are also taken into account, medical students are facing debts of well over £45,000 - a figure recognised by the Secretary of State for Education. Is this the way to combat the elitism so prevalent in medical education? Is this the way to attract students from less privileged backgrounds?
Widening participation initiatives in recent years have been hampered by the debt aversion that is most prevalent in people from ethnic minorities, lone parent families and those from the lowest socio-economic groups.7 If medicine is ever to stop disadvantaging the most vulnerable groups in the UK and is truly to become a profession that reflects the population it serves, it is these students that the government must focus on. Access to medicine should be based on aptitude and potential, not on ability to pay. Widening access initiatives specifically targeted at medicine must be put in place to encourage less privileged school leavers to apply and efforts should concentrate on establishing bursaries for the most disadvantaged school-leavers in order to help support them through the course.
Finally, at a time when the UK population is plunging deeper and deeper into personal debt with all its associated problems, we must challenge the government’s position that it is right and proper to require the taking on of significant debts in order to follow a desired career path.
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