Economy Minister paves way for increased support for graduate entry medical students

Economy Minister Conor Murphy has today announced his intention to offer greater financial support for graduate entry medical students from 2025/26.

Economy Minister Conor Murphy

From the 2025/26 academic year, the Minister intends for students at the Graduate Entry Medical School at Ulster University’s Derry~Londonderry campus to be able to access a Government loan for tuition fees.

The Minister said:
"Delivering 10,000 students at Ulster University's Magee campus is a priority for me as Economy Minister and for the Executive. To date students at the Graduate Entry Medical School have been unable to obtain a Government loan to cover the cost of their tuition. This has been a barrier for people taking up places. Offering them this loan will attract more students to Magee and produce much-needed medical professionals for our health service."

The decision is subject to the outcome of discussions with higher education institutions and other key stakeholders and consideration of their views. The Minister will then move to lift the restriction from next year. The decision to pursue the change has been made with agreement from Health Minister Mike Nesbitt.

Notes to editors: 

1. The Department of Health has policy responsibility for determining the higher education student support available for medical students studying in Northern Ireland. The Department for the Economy facilitates and enacts, through legislation and operationally, the Department of Health’s policy position. The relevant legislation is the Education (Student Support) (No. 2) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2009.
2. Tuition fee loans are not generally available to students from here studying a second degree. The introduction of tuition fee loans for graduate entry medical students will require both system and operational changes to the delivery of this student support by the Student Loans Company (SLC). The earliest this can be done is for academic year 2025/26.
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