MEDIA ALERT –

NSW Medical Students labels New Macquarie Medical

School as Irresponsible
Today, Macquarie University will launch its new medical school, charging
its students at a tear-inducing $250,000 per degree to achieve their dream of
becoming a doctor, triple the cost of most medical schools.

The New South Wales Medical Students’ Council (NSWMSC) is the peak
representative body of the 7 medical schools already established in New South
Wales, the most out of any state in Australia. NSWMSC believes that the proposed
school is more focused on capitalising on the aspirations of hopeful doctors than it
is in addressing the fact that medical students are already graduating in a country
where post-graduate training pathways are over-subscribed. Such pathways are
necessary for graduating medical students to complete before they can become a
qualified, working doctor to pay off the massive debt that Macquarie University is
charging. NSWMSC President, Ms Ashna Basu, says:

“The medical landscape has never lacked privileged, wealthy students but it does
lack positions at both internship and training registrar level for the students we
currently have. Macquarie's medical school is an irresponsible gesture that
entrenches both privilege and an oversupply of new doctors in the profession.”

In the last 10 years alone, medical student numbers have increased by 97%, in an
environment where 1000+ graduates will miss out on speciality-training positions
by 2030. NSWMSC has a clear no new medical schools policy that was passed
unanimously last year by all medical student societies in the state. As the policy
states, an increase in medical students will not result an increase in doctors,
particularly in rural areas where they are needed, until upstream training pathways
are better funded to support the already astronomical increase in medical student
graduates.

As such, NSWMSC calls upon the Federal government to legislate a ban on public
universities offering full fee places in medicine, and the NSW government to
ensure that no medical student is left in crippling debt after a hard four years of
study and no pathway to qualify as a doctor.

Hundreds of health professionals are already expressing their concerns with the
announcement of the new medical school using the Australian Medical Students’
hashtag #macworrymedschool

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Media Contacts:

Liam Mason Ashna Basu

Advocacy Officer 2017 President 2017
NSWMSC NSWMSC
M: +61 432 949 086 M: +61 452 568 964
E: advocacy@nswmsc.org.au E: president@nswmsc.org.au