Call to protect medical degrees in university funding debate

Medicine should receive special protection in the review of higher education funding, according to Scottish doctors.

BMA Scotland, in its response to the Scottish Government’s Green Paper, ‘Building a Smarter Future’, said the attainment of a medical degree should be based on merit, not ability to pay.

It said a medical degree is “distinct” from most other types of degree, and highlighted the importance of medical research to the country’s health and economy.

The Green Paper proposes a removing the limit on international students studying medicine, while reducing the number of Scottish funded places. The BMA opposes this, saying there should be an overall cut in medical school places, based on workforce projections.

Dima Nassif, co-chair of the BMA’s Scottish Medical Students Committee, said: “It would be wrong to maintain current undergraduate medical student numbers, knowing there is little prospect of medical employment for a significant number of them. It would also be damaging in the longer-term to Scotland’s training reputation if it cannot provide meaningful employment prospects to its medical graduates.”

She added: “Studying medicine is different to most other degree courses. It is longer and there are many additional costs that can add up to a significant sum over the years, such as the requirement to travel to clinical placements, equipment and registration fees. Because we have longer term times and the need to gain clinical experience, holiday work is often not possible so it can be difficult to pay off debt.

“There is no doubt that these hidden costs make it financially harder for medical students. This burden of debt can put some students off studying medicine, particularly those from low income households, as they don’t want to accumulate so much debt before they’ve even begun their career. We need to ensure that changes to higher education funding and student support take medicine into consideration as a special case to make sure the doctors of tomorrow are not put off studying medicine today.”