Katie Webb, Year 3
**Please note the information in this article mainly relates to studying an undergraduate medicine course (5/6 years) as a first degree. Funding situations vary for graduate entry medicine, graduates enrolled on undergraduate courses and international students. Funding amounts may also vary year to year.**
If you search ‘applying for medicine’ into google, countless webpages appear, full of information from mastering admission tests to surviving interviews. However, few provide in-depth information regarding funding the degree, with many completely omitting any information about it at all. Consequently, many medical students are (unpleasantly) surprised when they learn about it at university.
Let’s start with the basics. Most UK students on a recognised degree course are eligible for a tuition fee loan of up to £9250 per year, which covers the cost of tuition fees (UCAS, 2022). Students can also apply for a maintenance loan. For students living away from their parents, and outside London, the first £4524 is non-means tested, with a maximum amount available of £9706 for students, with the exact amount usually dependent upon their ‘family residual income’ (Gov.UK, 2022).
Money Saving Expert Martin Lewis has produced a good myth-busting guide to university loans (Lewis & Clare, 2022). The two key takeaways are that there is an unspoken expectation for many parents to chip in and that the loan operates more like a graduate tax.
Receiving maintenance and tuition fees as described above is what happens to the vast majority of UK university students, regardless of course. However, as medicine is longer than the typical university course, this only applies to medical students in their first four years of their undergraduate course. In their fifth year, and sixth if they intercalate, they instead become eligible for an NHS bursary. In short, this usually consists of the NHS paying the tuition fees in full, a non-means tested bursary of £1,000 and a means-tested bursary of up to £2643 if living outside London. Students can also get a reduced maintenance loan from Student Finance of £1,975 (or slightly more if living in London) . If the course is longer than 30 weeks, an additional £84 per week can be claimed (NHS , 2022). Therefore, for typical 40 week year the maximum a student outside London can receive is £6,458. This maximum requires a total family residual income of less than £24,279, so many students will receive considerably less.
If you compare this to the Student Finance maximum maintenance loan of £9706 (Gov.UK, 2022) that students outside of London can access in their first four years it becomes clear that there is a dramatic reduction in funding in the final year or two. How is this gap plugged? Essentially it’s up to the individual to make up the shortfall, but many students are left the immense challenge of balancing placement and revising for finals with increasing their hours at part time jobs, maxing out on credit cards, overdrafts and personal bank loans.
In spring 2022, the #LiveableNHSbursary campaign started on twitter. Students highlighted the immense financial strain they were under and urged the government to engage with it. The Doctors Association UK (Welch, 2022) and the BMA (BMA, 2022) both supported this campaign, with national newspapers also giving it some attention (Maddocks, 2022). Students called for medical and dental students to have access to the non means-tested £5000 grant from the NHS Learning Support Fund, which is given to students on most other healthcare courses (NHS, no date). They also called for the full Student Finance loans to be available throughout the five or six years (Hewitt, 2022).
In response the University of Nottingham extended a central university bursary to final year medical students (University of Nottingham, no date). Yet for students at most universities, the situation remains much unchanged and the stress of funding studying medicine remains burdensome. With the cost of living crisis worsening, the BMA’s recent student finance survey made for grim reading. While the study has its limitations, the fact that 60% of respondents said they would be cutting back on essentials, and 4% were having to use a food bank (BMA, 2022) is certainly worrying.
Let’s hope universities, the governmental and the NHS act soon. For if they don’t, medicine risks once again becoming the preserve of the rich.
References
BMA. (2022, 04 28). BMA backs campaign for a liveable NHS bursary. Retrieved 08 30, 2022, from https://www.bma.org.uk/bma-media-centre/bma-backs-campaign-for-a-liveable-nhs-bursary
BMA. (2022, 07 28). Medical student survey. Retrieved 08 30, 2022, from https://www.bma.org.uk/media/6069/bma-student-survey-2022.pdf
Gov.UK. (2022). Student finance for undergraduates. Retrieved 08 30, 2022, from https://www.gov.uk/student-finance/new-fulltime-students
Hewitt, L. (2022, 05 04). ‘People would rather take a loan and be able to eat’: Medical Students launch the #LiveableNHSBursary campaign. Retrieved 08 30, 2022, from The Mancunion: https://mancunion.com/2022/05/04/medical-students-launch-the-liveablenhsbursary-campaign/
Lewis, M., & Clare, C. (2022). Student loans: the truth about uni fees, loans and grants. Retrieved 08 30, 2022, from Money Saving Expert: https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/students/student-loans-tuition-fees-changes/
Maddocks, E. (2022, 05 07). Final year medical students ‘can’t afford to pay rent’. Retrieved 08 30, 2022, from BBC: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-61302377
NHS . (2022, 03). NHS Bursary funding for medical and dental students 2022/23. Retrieved 08 30, 2022, from https://www.nhsbsa.nhs.uk/sites/default/files/2022-03/NHS%20Bursary%20Funding%20for%20Medical%20and%20Dental%20Students%202022-23%20%28V3.1%29%20%28Digital%29%2003.2022.pdf
NHS. (no date). Learning Support Fund. Retrieved 08 30, 2022, from NHS Business Services Authority: https://www.nhsbsa.nhs.uk/nhs-learning-support-fund-lsf
UCAS. (2022). Undergraduate Tuition Fees and Student Loans. Retrieved 08 30, 2022, from https://www.ucas.com/finance/undergraduate-tuition-fees-and-student-loans#how-much-are-tuition-fees
University of Nottingham. (no date). Core Bursary Assesment Procedure. Retrieved 08 30, 2022, from https://www.nottingham.ac.uk/studentservices/support/financialsupport/bursariesandscholarships/core-bursary-assessment-procedure.aspx
Welch, E. (2022, 05 19). Invite your MP to our emergency briefing. Retrieved 08 30, 2022, from https://www.dauk.org/news/2022/05/19/invite-your-mp-to-our-emergency-briefing/
THE WORSLEY TIMES 
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