Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 20 May 2021
77. Deputy Rose Conway-Walsh asked the Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science his plans to address the barriers facing students accessing graduate-entry medicine; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [27378/21]
Amharc ar fhreagraI am asking the Minister to address the barriers facing students accessing graduate-entry medicine. Only approximately half of the places in medicine in the State go to students from Ireland. There has been essentially no increase in the quota of 708 Irish and other EU students who can study medicine here. In the same period, approximately 100 new places were added for more lucrative international students. I ask the Minister to fix this to allow our students to access medicine.
I am grateful to the Deputy for bringing this up because it is an issue I have been engaging on quite a bit. I have met a number of students, either studying medicine as graduate entrants or considering doing that. I am concerned because the argument they would put forward to me is that there is benefit both to the health service and to them as future doctors in having undertaken a degree, perhaps, in the first instance, that is not in medicine. For example, I met a young man recently who decided to do a science degree and then go into medicine by that route but there is a much increased financial cost should he choose to go that way. Let me share some of my thoughts on this.
My Department is committed to the provision of graduates for the health service through undergraduate and postgraduate provision. Progression is a key tenet of the SUSI scheme and section 2 of the Student Support Act 2011 defines "progression" as "the process by which learners may transfer from one course to another course where the award that may be made on the successful completion of the second mentioned course is of a higher level." That is the challenge we encounter at present, that somebody entering graduate-entry medicine is entering at the same level as perhaps another undergraduate degree that he or she did. The student accessing graduate-entry medicine will, as a matter of course, hold a level 8 qualification prior to the entry and completion of a graduate-entry medicine degree confers a further level 8 qualification on that individual. At present, that is where we are legislatively stuck.
Students pursuing a second degree course are not eligible for free-fees funding or for student grants and, therefore, graduate-entry medicine students have not qualified for these programmes since the introduction of the courses. However, to widen access to graduate-entry medicine programmes and to assist the students pursuing these programmes, the fees of EU students enrolled in graduate-entry medicine are partly subsidised by the State via the Higher Education Authority, HEA. As of the 2020 academic year, the State contribution is €11,524 per graduate-entry student per year and the balance of fees is payable by students.
I will come back on this in a moment to look at some of the mechanisms.
Every year gets more competitive for the Irish student to study medicine and, as the Minister stated, other students begin with another degree and then try to get back in and study medicine. This graduate-entry medicine route is even more dominated by the more lucrative international students. If it is possible to imagine, this is even more difficult to get into than directly from the leaving certificate. Fees are approximately €15,000 a year. That is €60,000 over four years.
There are no Government supports to help students who do not come from wealthy families and the only option is the loan from the Bank of Ireland. However, I have been contacted by a young man from Limerick who tried to get this bank loan and was told that he needed a guarantor to sign the loan and that the guarantor had to earn at least €50,000 a year. The young man in question comes from a single-parent household and his mother does not earn more than €50,000 a year. Indeed, most people in this country do not earn more than €50,000 a year.
As a former Minister for Health, I think diversity in terms of the backgrounds of our healthcare professionals, particularly our medical professionals, is a good thing and would assist in the delivery of health services as well.
What are we doing in relation to this? The first thing I said to the Deputy is we are already providing a direct subsidy of fees for graduate-entry medicine in a way that we are not for many other areas. The second area is that at present they cannot apply for SUSI. This is a big ask of theirs, as Deputy Conway-Walsh will be aware because she and I have been engaged on this. There is a review of SUSI that is due to be concluded over the summer months and finally concluded in the autumn. This is one area that can be looked at as part of that review. The third area is just to point out to any student that the student assistance fund is available for a student even if he or she is accessing a degree on the same level as already funded. That might provide some short-term assistance. I should also point out tax relief at the standard rate of tax may also be available in respect of any fees paid for approved courses at approved colleges of higher education. Of course, detailed information is available from the Revenue Commissioners. I intend to pursue this further and look at it in the context of the Estimates discussions.
I thank the Minister for that. That needs to be done sooner rather than later because becoming a doctor, the Minister will agree, should not be the reserve of one class in our society.
Can the Minister also provide details on the arrangement Bank of Ireland has with the universities for giving loans to graduate-entry medicine and what action will he take to allow more people to address that? We cannot have a situation where Bank of Ireland is asking that a student's guarantor needs to earn more than €50,000.
It is just not acceptable in this day and age. I ask the Minister to challenge that and to clear that up with the banks. There are so many parishes in Ireland that need doctors, not least in Kiltimagh in my county, Mayo, which is desperate for doctors. We have the makings of wonderful doctors here that we need to invest in for the long term.
I cannot speak in regard to the banks, but I take the point the Deputy makes. It could well be a barrier for many people in accessing financial assistance. I can examine how we can provide greater financial assistance. I have already pointed out that the student assistance fund is a more immediate-term mechanism. The first of two other areas I want to examine is SUSI, in the context of the review, and whether there is something we can do there to help. Second, we are already providing a degree of subsidised fees to the tune of over €11,000 per year per student who goes into graduate entry medicine. Can we do more in that regard? They are the two practical areas that people in this House can reasonably ask me to examine. I am very happy to do that.
From my point of view, as the Minister with responsibility for higher education and skills in this country I can see a lot of merit in the idea that a young student leaving school might wish to do a degree that could benefit him or her later when studying medicine. In a number of European and other countries across the world it is often the case that the doctor one sees at one's bedside is a fully qualified medical doctor but also has a background in another area. For example, occupational therapists and scientists in this country have gone on to be doctors. The pandemic has shown that there is benefit in broadening that base of diversity in learning. I do not want medicine to be the preserve of any one group of people in our society.
