Trinity College Dublin Students’ Union Council (TCDSU) has voted in favour of a motion which will see it put forward a motion to work with the Union of Students in Ireland (USI) on a national campaign to increase financial support for students in graduate-entry medicine.
TCDSU’s delegates at USI Congress, which will take place next year, will put forward a motion to create a national USI-led campaign which would lobby the government to provide more financial support to graduate-entry medicine students.
The motion passed with 93 per cent of the vote.
Speaking at Council this evening, third-year physiology class representative Charles Sweeney, who proposed the motion, said that those who go through the graduate-entry medicine program can leave college with “€100,000 worth of debt when you factor in the cost of credit”.
Sweeney said the motion was encouraging TCDSU to use its affiliation with USI to “enact change on this issue”.
The fundamental question, he said, was: “Can we continue to allow [graduate-entry medicine] to be a route into medicine specifically for those who can afford it?”
Speaking in favour of the motion, Claire Molloy, a molecular medicine class representative, said: “With the loans you can take out you’re kind of in debt for ten years.”
Bev Genockey, the union’s biology convener, said: “Fundamentally it’s an access issue.”
TCDSU president Eoin Hand, who seconded the motion, said that the motion was “a fantastic initiative to support” as the fees for graduate-entry medicine “are marginalising a lot of students”.
While Trinity does not offer graduate-entry medicine as a course, University College Dublin has increased fees for the course annually since 2017, with tuition currently standing at €16,290 for Irish students and €55,140 for non-EU students. This represents an increase of €1,000 and €3,000 respectively since 2017.
Last month, over 70 per cent of graduate-entry medicine students in UCD withheld fees in protest over further fee increases and disruptions to learning due to the coronavirus pandemic.
