Scrap bursary for medical students in England, says Institute for Fiscal Studies

The Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) has called for the NHS bursary in England to be scrapped.The bursary is a grant of between £10 000 to £14 000 awarded to undergraduate medical and dentistry students in the later stages of their course to cover tuition fees and maintenance costs.1 It replaces government student loans. For postgraduate medical and dental students, tuition fees are only partially covered.In a comment article, IFS senior research economist Ben Waltmann argued that the bursary does not provide value for money.2With government plans to double the number of medical school places by 2031,3 Waltmann said the cost of the NHS bursary was expected to increase proportionally. He questioned whether this cost was justified, given the competitive nature of medical school admissions and subsequent problems with retaining an NHS workforce.“It would be much better to redirect funding towards a problem we do have, namely retaining doctors in…
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