Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 7 July 2022
4. Deputy Cathal Berry asked the Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science the way he intends to address the extremely high cost of tuition fees for graduate entry medicine courses; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [36722/22]
Amharc ar fhreagraMy question relates to a specific course, namely, the graduate entry medicine course run by a number of universities and medical schools throughout the country. As the Minister will be aware, the fees for such courses are absolutely enormous. They are some of the highest in the country at between €15,000 and €16,500 per year, which is incredible. Does the Minister have any plans to reduce these tuition fees, to reduce the burden on students and to keep medicine open to ordinary people?
I am aware of the Deputy's interest in and knowledge of this area. I know there was a lot of worry and concern among new students of graduate entry medicine when a bank made a decision to withdraw a loan product that had been used by many students of such courses. For the record of the House and for the Deputy's information, I have corresponded with Bank of Ireland on this. The bank made it clear to me that while it was making a commercial decision to withdraw the product, people could continue to apply for the product until 31 July of this year. I say that just by the by, but it is perhaps important information for people who will start such courses in September. There is no immediate cliff edge.
The broader point the Deputy makes very much concerns me. As a former Minister for Health, I am of the view that diversity in the medical profession is a good thing and that people coming to medicine from a whole variety of backgrounds can only be a good thing. We need to look at graduate entry medicine in a different way from how we might look at some other programmes. At the moment, as the Deputy will know, doing graduate entry medicine is marked as doing another level 8 degree, so the reason students do not qualify for the same level of supports or for SUSI is that it is seen as doing another degree at the same level. I am not sure that is quite fair because there could be very significant benefit to the health service and to our population from someone doing a science, occupational therapy or physiotherapy degree and then deciding they wish to become a doctor and having an additional level of qualification, so yes, I am up for looking at that.
How do I intend to look at it? I intend to do a couple of things. First, this came up in the context of the SUSI student grant scheme. At present, the scheme does not encompass graduate entry medicine. I have to be honest with the House: there are legislative, policy and funding issues that relate to this. The student grant review raised the policy question as to whether there should be flexibility for graduate programmes in areas of critical skills shortages, including medicine. One avenue I am looking at is SUSI and whether we could then make that available. I am also considering another range of policy and funding tools to try to increase the supply of domestic medicine graduates. The Deputy will know that we have announced 60 more undergraduate places for September. In that context, I will engage with the Department of Health on whether there is a policy rationale to do more to support graduate entry medicine.
I thank the Minister for his response. It is good to see there are at least a few options on the table. I will give him two more options that might be worth considering. He mentioned, and is on record as having said, that he would like to reduce the student registration fee, which I would certainly welcome. There is a great deal of speculation - obviously, he cannot make any commitments this morning - on maybe reducing it by €250 per student on budget day, which I would certainly welcome. The more the merrier. Would the Minister be prepared to consider a larger pro rata reduction for graduate entry medicine students in light of the fact that their fees are so enormous?
I understand that the Higher Education Authority, HEA, or the State through the HEA, provides a subvention to each of these universities and medical schools per student because I think the true cost per year is about €25,000. Would the Minister be willing to consider an increased contribution from the State, which would mean that the students would not have to pay as much towards their education?
The short answer as to what I would be willing to consider is that I will consider any and all options. The most direct way in which we can assist include the Deputy's second suggestion regarding the level of subvention through the free fees initiative that the State provides. Deputy Berry has not suggested this, but sometimes it is suggested that the State does not provide any funding in this regard. That is not the case. The case, as the Deputy rightly said, is that we do provide some subvention. Could we provide more? That is definitely one policy option.
The second option is trying to provide access to SUSI, which would be a more targeted intervention, in assessing a graduate entry medicine student in the same way any student is assessed. If such students were eligible, they would be able to avail of significant financial support and maybe a reduction in fees not available to them at the moment. Those are the two most direct ways.
I will tell the Deputy something else I am considering doing. I have yet to finalise this or to bring it to the Government, but we run a number of bursaries through our national access plan. Currently, those bursaries are only for undergraduate programmes. I am very seriously considering extending them to graduate entry medicine, recognising the need for diversity in the profession and including people from socioeconomically disadvantaged backgrounds in graduate entry medicine.
I agree that a similar type of bursary scheme would make an excellent contribution. It could be made as large as possible. As someone who has been down this pathway, I can totally identify with the pressures these students are under.
I like what the Minister said about the Bank of Ireland loan. I finished paying off my Bank of Ireland student loan only three months ago.
Many people will be watching these proceedings from home. If the round zero offers come out in a couple of weeks' time, the people starting graduate medicine in September can still - in theory, at least - apply for the loan before 31 July. Is that the Minister's understanding? If that is the case, that will certainly make things much better. They could apply, get on the pathway and then take it from there. If the Minister could clarify that, it would be very useful.
I am delighted to do so. As anyone in this House will know, I am fundamentally opposed to the concept of student loans and have ruled them out as a funding model. This is an anomaly in respect of graduate entry medicine. I would like to take a more hands-on policy intervention approach. In the interim, there is a Bank of Ireland product available. People will probably be watching these proceedings with interest, so I will share with the Deputy and the House the following.
When I corresponded with Bank of Ireland on this, it responded to say:
We carefully considered the future of the GEM loan product and we ultimately decided that it should be discontinued for a number of reasons. However, it should be noted that no graduate student starting their medicine course in 2022 should be impacted as the final closing date for applications has been set for 31 July. Please note that some students starting their course in September 2022 may not have received their letter of acceptance. We will however process their application and conditionally approve. Once the customer provides proof of acceptance in August or September we will progress the loan. Hence no student applying for the GEM loan should be impacted this year.
That is helpful. A person can apply conditionally and provide the proof afterwards.
