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Minister 'disappointed' by BOI decision to end graduate medical student loan

Fees for graduate entry medicine (GEM) students are now set at €16,290 per year for Irish students.

MINISTER FOR FURTHER and Higher Education Simon Harris has said he is “disappointed” at a decision by Bank of Ireland to discontinue a loan available to graduate medical students.

Minister Harris is due to bring a review of the Student Universal Support Ireland (Susi) system to government, which will look at supports for students who pursue medicine through this route.

Fees for graduate entry medicine (GEM) students are now set at €16,290 per year for Irish students and €55,140 for non-EU students.

GEM students pursue the programme as a second degree – after first completing a separate related undergraduate degree -  so they are not eligible for free fees funding or student grants.

The fees of participating EU students are partly subsidised by the State through the Higher Education Authority – in the 2020/2021 academic school year, the State contribution was €11,524 per student.

The Bank of Ireland loan, which was capped at €15,000 per year, contained a moratorium on repayments so graduates would not have to start paying back the loan until four years after they completed their degree. 

The bank has said that those who have already taken out these loans will not be impacted, but that the loan will no longer be available for new applications after 31 July this year. 

“The loan required a parental guarantee which was not an option for all students and the deferral of repayments meant accumulated debt by the end of term,” Bank of Ireland said in a statement.

“It has accounted for a very small volume of our overall lending and the volume has dropped in recent years, while our other loans became more popular.”

The bank said it has a number of other loans for undergraduates, postgraduates and graduates.

“These include our student loan to fund back to college expenses, travel or living expenses, and our postgraduate loan. We also offer extremely competitive rates via a Personal Loan up to €65,000.”

‘Disappointed’

A spokesperson for Minister Harris told The Journal he was “disappointed with this decision”.

“His main concern is the cost of graduate entry medicine to the student,” she said.

“He is due to bring the Susi review to government shortly and will consider how to better support students in this context.”

Ruairí Power, President of UCD Students’ Union, told The Journal that it will be important that affected students are considered as part of the Susi review. 

“You can’t separate the discussion on loan requirements from the fee levels themselves,” he said. “The single most-effective measure the government could take would be to reduce the up-front cost for students.

“Loans are not an overall solution here, but having this loan facility removed pulled the rug out from under students and left them with no viable alternative.”

He said students who were intending to pursue a GEM are now planning to take a couple of years out to work and save the funds they need to continue with their education. 

“It’s either that or people will go abroad, and right now we have a chronic shortfall in recruitment and retention in the health service so a lack of access into that course will be a problem.

“It was also meant to diversify the field and if it’s only available exclusively to those with a large amount of accumulated wealth it defeats the purpose of the GEM scheme.”

‘Colossal money’

Speaking in the Seanad earlier this week, Minister for State Anne Rabbitte said the decision “was sprung upon the government, and now the government is dealing with the matter as quickly as it can”.

“This is a priority for the government,” she said. “We do not want to be in such a situation where we cannot recruit young people into these courses because they cannot afford them.”

She said these loans were “so helpful because they acknowledged the level of professionalism required in such courses, that they were intensive and that there would be an opportunity at the end to work and earn enough income to repay them”.

“Removing the loans from the market makes it difficult for students to consider pursuing such careers. Parents may not have the funding or correct credit status to be successful guarantors.”

Minister Rabbitte was responding to a question on the issue from  Labour Party Senator Annie Hoey, who referenced a survey of Irish GEM students which found that the majority require external financial support to pay the university fees. 

“We all know how much those university fees are; they are €16,000 per year to study GEM,” she said. “That is colossal money. It is €64,000 that they have to take out as a loan. Some 74% of those who responded have or would have eventually sought to avail of the Bank of Ireland loan and that is a significant number.”

“The fees were already exorbitant and we have had conversations before about how it is unrealistic to expect people to pay them,” Senator Hoey said. “We will never have any sort of diversity in medicine if we have the likes of €16,000 per year fees and if we are locking people out of loans for that money because they cannot get guarantors or take out a personal loan.”

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    Mute Mick Tobin
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    Feb 23rd 2022, 7:41 PM

    It won’t help one bit for two reasons. Firstly because Russia has been having enough financial resources to help it through sanctions for years and will continue to do so, and secondly because this isn’t even about the military Nato threat the Russians claim is bothering them.

    There simply isn’t enough Nato military power in the area to outgun the Russians for that claim to hold, so it has to be about something else, which I think is the Kremlin being terrified that a democratic revolution could at some point reach Moscow.

    The whole thing started with an EU association treaty in 2014 – this triggered the Maidan crisis and the subsequent annexation of Crimea. Moreover Boris Johnson is still sitting on a collusion report into UK elections and the Brexit referendum, presumably because it would embarrassingly expose how Russia scored a major geopolitical victory with that referedum outcome.

    So I think Nato isn’t the real enemy so much from Russia’s perspective. It’s democracy in general, and the EU in particular. They don’t like the idea of this system sitting next to them because of what it advocates, and they don’t like people witnessing its success because it threatens them, and this is what makes the situation so dangerous, because if democracy is the enemy, then what sort of contained solution will pacify the Kremlin? There is no such solution I’m afraid.

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    Mute Sean McCarthy
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    Feb 23rd 2022, 7:47 PM

    @Mick Tobin: very well put, great point.

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    Mute Gerard
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    Feb 24th 2022, 1:09 AM

    @Mick Tobin: the sanctions imposed over Crimea did have a very negative effect on the Russian economy. Look at the exchange rate of the ruble over the last ten years and you’ll see it lose over 50% of it’s value nearly overnight.

    I’m not saying the sanctions will deter Russia. But the last round did have a strong measurable negative effect. But they’re not going to cause the economy to disappear overnight, and at a certain point it will adapt. No more than North Korea functions without much of any access to the world economy. Just because it’s priced in, and doesn’t cause the regime to collapse doesn’t mean the negative effect isn’t there.

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    Mute Paul Gorry
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    Feb 23rd 2022, 7:12 PM

    Putin couldn’t care less about sanctions nor can the rest of the Russian government.

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    Mute Mick McGuinness
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    Feb 23rd 2022, 7:35 PM

    Any Family members of any high ranking government, military, oligarchs should have their visa cancelled in the West and given 24 hour’s too leave. Freeze all Bank accounts no matter which bank they’re in. If the West don’t do anything it’s like Hitler and his actions all over again.

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    Mute Kerrill Thornhill
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    Feb 23rd 2022, 7:34 PM

    It’s hard to see these sanctions having any meaningful impact. The over use of economic sanctions on places like Cuba/ Venezuela/ Iran/ Syria/ N.Korea have pushed them into the arms of China and Russia, effectively nullifying their inpact. Chinas is now the world’s biggest economy and its balance of trade boomed despite US sanctions – their Belt and Road Initiative has attracted over 130 countries, making them the dominant global economic power. This is causing panic stations for countries who have used economic power to bully colonies/ small countries in the past.

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    Mute JohnDoe
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    Feb 23rd 2022, 7:09 PM

    WH says sanctions are already impacting …the reality is their not. Putin and Co have being planning this for years. He shorting the dollar over gold… Ukraine is a major supplier of Neon … higher..and ..HIGHER prices to come.. fertiliser prices to increase..impacting food prices in 12 months or so….

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    Mute Michael McGrath
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    Feb 23rd 2022, 7:50 PM

    Have a funny feeling those sanctions will have more of an impact on us ala higher again fuel prices and the knock on effect of higher prices of everything than any real impact on Russia

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    Mute Kieran Woods
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    Feb 23rd 2022, 7:49 PM

    There will be loads of posturing and huffing and puffing then it will all blow over. Gas transit through Ukraine will be throttled. Europe needs the gas. NS2 will be in operation inside 12 months.

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    Mute Philip Dwyer
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    Feb 23rd 2022, 7:22 PM

    We need to ban our coddle exports to Russia.

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    Mute Mick McGuinness
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    Feb 23rd 2022, 7:31 PM

    @Philip Dwyer: down with that sort of thing.

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    Mute Colm Molloy
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    Feb 23rd 2022, 8:00 PM

    @Philip Dwyer: And all boxty from the border counties

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    Mute John O Mahony
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    Feb 24th 2022, 1:45 AM

    We are a neutral country so why are we taking sides. I don’t see any sanctions against isreal when the are taking palestinian land on a continuous basis. Double standards from the west.

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    Mute Colm Molloy
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    Feb 23rd 2022, 8:12 PM

    Did the Americans put all sorts of bases and the like around Russia years ago which caused them to build up military resources in all sorts of far out places in Russia, which essentially became an arms race, eventually collapsing their economy, this time, they are more armed and funded, but still hurt from before, egotistically.
    How to resolve this one is anyones guess but being slightly left of centre and soft might not work, or at least get the west a lot less at the negotiation table.
    The west wanting, in this case, Russia not deploying it’s army outside its borders .
    It’s a tough one alright.

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    Mute Neuville-Kepler62F
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    Feb 24th 2022, 11:57 AM

    Hearts and minds over guns and tanks.

    The Internet now enables identification and direct communication with individual soldiers.
    Their personal details are on Social Media platforms.

    Russian soldiers have form in responding maturely to “daft” orders from their officers.

    https://eng.mil.ru/en/mission/peacekeeping_operations.htm

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