Trainee medics leave university with £100,000 in debt amid cost of living crisis

14 January 2023 , 21:40

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Students are leaving university with huge debt (Stock photo) (Image: Getty Images)

Student doctors and nurses are leaving university with more than £100,000 in study debts.

Figures show they begin professional careers saddled with an average of more than £30,000 in student debts.

The worst-hit owe far more.

Tonight the figures were described as “eye-watering” - as it was warned rising debt could put off young people from studying medicine.

Data released by the Student Loans Company shows the average trainee doctor last year left medical school with education debts of £32,435.

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But the average figure hides the wide variation of the debts being heaped onto the shoulders of would-be doctors, with the biggest student loan last year clocking in at £121,400.

There are fears it could put people off studying medicine (Stock photo) (Getty Images)

For students who took a nursing degree and graduated last year the average student debt they had incurred was £32,033, with the biggest sum reaching £110,863.

Over the last five years the average debt incurred by trainee nurses has increased by more than £10,000 from £19,350 to £32,033.

In the same time period the average student debt amassed by student doctors has risen more than £1,000 from £31,329 to the current figure of £32,435.

The student loan system means interest will be heaped on these loans every year while payments are taken out of their pay packets to reduce the debt.

Doctors are facing £100,000 study debts (Stock photo) (Getty Images)

Raymond Effah, co-chair of the medical students committee at the British Medical Association, said: “These student debt numbers are eye-watering, but they will come as no surprise to UK medical students.

“We have been warning about astronomical debt burdens for years but government help with tuition fees and bursaries is still pitifully thin on the ground. Recently announced increases in the maintenance loan do little to help current medical students, especially those reliant on the bursary which has continued to see no increases.

“The results of this neglect can already be seen. Doctors struggle with living costs during their studies and are graduating with £100,000 in debt. Now struggling to cope with the cost of living crisis, interest payments, on top of bills and rent, are leading almost a third to rely on overdrafts and credit cards to pay basic expenses."

Matthew Davis