Medical student funding in Northern Ireland is hard to navigate and inadequately supports many students, especially graduate medical students and those from lower socio-economic backgrounds.
At a time of serious medical workforce shortages across all specialties in the Northern Ireland health service, medical students should not be faced with such enormous financial barriers to studying medicine.
Background – the situation in Northern Ireland
Undergraduate medical students in Northern Ireland may have the lowest tuition fees in the UK, if they choose to stay and study here. However, this advantage is cancelled out by the by the overall financial package they receive. For example: the maximum available maintenance loan available for the 2025/26 academic year is between 21-34% lower for Northern Ireland-domiciled students than their counterparts in the other UK nations.
Table - Tuition fees and maintenance loans available to Northern Ireland-domiciled undergraduate med students in comparison to the rest of the UK for the 25/26 academic year.
| Home region | Northern Ireland | England | Wales | Scotland |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tuition fees | Up to £4,855 | Up to £9,535 | Up to £9,535 | Up to £9,535 |
| Maintenance loans | Maximum living with parent/guardian - £6,300 | Maximum living with parent/guardian - £8,877 | Maximum living with parent/guardian - £10,480 | Maximum living with parent/guardian - £9,400 |
| Maximum living away from parent/guardian - £8,132, | Maximum living away from parent/guardian - £10,544 | Maximum living away from parent/guardian - £12,345 | Maximum living away from parent/guardian - £10,400 |
The Department for Health (DoH) bursary for undergraduate students in their fifth and later years of study is income-assessed and – if awarded – reduces the student maintenance loan.
Graduate medical students
Students studying medicine as a second degree receive reduced financial support in comparison to graduates studying elsewhere in the UK.
- As of the 2025/26 academic year, they do not receive the maintenance grant, special support grant, or payment of 5th year tuition fees.
- They are also not entitled to the DoH bursary in their fifth or final year.
BMA Student Finance Survey – Northern Ireland results
Northern Ireland respondents to the 2025 BMA UK-wide student finance survey tell us that the financial situation for medical students here is getting worse.
- 92% of Northern Ireland respondents say their funding doesn’t cover basic living costs.
- More than 60% spend less on essentials.
- Over 50% use overdraft to pay for basic purchases.
- 85% feel their financial situation is detrimental to their education.
- 89.7% say that their financial situation has been detrimental to their mental wellbeing.
- 43% have considered leaving medicine due to financial pressures (slightly higher than UK average).
Northern Ireland medical students career intentions survey 2025
The large amounts of debt that Northern Ireland medical students can graduate with is also causing many of them to consider careers in health systems outside of Northern Ireland where there are higher salaries.
In May 2025, BMA’s Northern Ireland medical students committee (NIMSC) published the findings of its career intentions survey of penultimate and final year med students at both medical schools here. The responses were stark:
- over 50% of respondents plan to leave the country after their foundation training
- of those who said they were planning to leave either Northern Ireland or medicine entirely after foundation training, over 81% of respondents said their decision was because of pay and conditions.
What we are calling for
- The DoH bursary should be paid to all final-year medical students, regardless of whether they are graduate or undergraduate.
- The maintenance loan should not be reduced upon receipt of the bursary and students should have access to full student finance maintenance for the entirety of their course.
- The tuition fee loan should be extended to graduate students at Queen’s University.
- Tuition fees should remain at the current lower rate to maintain access to medical education in Northern Ireland.
What NIMSC is doing to address this
NIMSC continues to proactively lobby DoH, Department for the Economy (DfE) and the country’s elected representatives to remove any financial barriers to studying medicine.
- Since March 2025 we have been meeting with DfE and DoH spokespeople for the main political parties in Northern Ireland as part of a targeted lobbying campaign to highlight the financial burdens on medical students studying here and what needs to change.
- In June 2025, we hosted a special roundtable event at Stormont on medical student finance with members of both the Economy committee and the Health committee. Watch the video.
- We have welcomed the announcement from the DfE that maintenance loans for full-time undergraduate students will be increased for the 2025/2026 academic year.
- Student finance is inequitable between the Northern Ireland’s only two medical schools. From the 2025/26 academic year, medical students at Ulster University’s graduate entry medical school will be able to access tuition fee loans, but this has not been extended to graduate medical students at Queen’s University, Belfast. NIMSC has submitted a response to the DfE’s consultation on the review of the postgraduate tuition fee loan. Whilst we support the proposal to increase the postgraduate tuition fee loan and acknowledge this would be a welcome step for those students who are undertaking postgraduate courses.
- We continue to call on the DfE to review the support available to students who are undertaking a second undergraduate degree both at UU and at QUB. And in January 2026 we met with senior DfE officials to relay our concerns directly. The committee will continue to work alongside QUB to lobby for tuition fee loans to be extended to graduate students studying there.
- After extensive lobbying from NIMSC, we have secured the introduction of a revised travel contribution scheme for the 2025/26 academic year based on travel distance. This ‘Banded Distance Scheme’ will be initially piloted in semester two of the 2025/26 academic year for students on placements in NHSCT (Northern Health and Social Care Trust) and recognise the higher cost for students traveling longer distances to placements:
| Travel distance | Payment (daily rate) |
|---|---|
| Below 15 miles | Ineligible |
| 15-30 miles | £6.25 |
| 30-45miles | £8.75 |
| Over 45miles | £11.25 |
If the pilot is deemed successful, the ‘Banded Distance Scheme’ will then be piloted for a further two years and reviewed again before a final decision is made on making it a permanent scheme. NIMSC will be involved in every stage of this process to ensure that both student views are considered, and students are not out of pocket.
What you can do - get involved
Strengthen our numbers
Urge fellow medical students to join the BMA.
Your NIMSC
Learn about the Northern Ireland medical students committee, who we are and how we work.
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