First year medical students may owe nearly £8,000 more than current graduates on qualification, according to a survey by the BMA.

The introduction this year of variable tuition fees allows the annual fees to be up to £3,000, compared to £1,175 under the previous flat rate system.

The survey of 1,737 medical students found that first year students owe an average of £7,776, up 12 percent from 2006. The average tuition paid by first year students was £2,779.

“These figures are shocking, but sadly not surprising,” says Ian Noble, chair of the BMA’s Medical Students Committee. “We have been warning for a long time that variable top-up fees will make student debt much worse.”

www.bma.org.uk/ap.nsf/content/studentfinsurvey17?OpenDocument&Login

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