{"id":976,"date":"2022-05-06T08:42:29","date_gmt":"2022-05-06T07:42:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dauk.org\/dauk-medical-students-launch-the-liveablenhsbursary-campaign\/"},"modified":"2022-05-06T08:42:29","modified_gmt":"2022-05-06T07:42:29","slug":"dauk-medical-students-launch-the-liveablenhsbursary-campaign","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dauk.org\/dauk-medical-students-launch-the-liveablenhsbursary-campaign\/","title":{"rendered":"DAUK Medical Students help support launch of the #LiveableNHSBursary campaign, as MANCUNION reports"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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The four founders of the campaign: Top Left: Penny, Top Right: Trisha, Bottom Left: Michaela, Bottom Right: Eilidh.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The #LiveableNHSBursary campaign was created by Eilidh to help raise awareness about the substantial drop in funding medical students face in their fifth and sixth years and the drastic effect it is having on students across the country. Penny described how the cut comes at perhaps the most crucial part of their course: \u201cAs you\u2019re going into your final year, your most difficult year, you\u2019re essentially taking a \u00a35,000 pay cut.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Currently, medical students are provided with full funding for their first four years of study, once they move into fifth and sixth year the funding plummets by half, from around \u00a310,000 to just under \u00a35,000. This is due to Student Finance England only fully funding students for four years of study.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Once medical students progress to fifth and sixth year they transfer onto the NHS Bursary system, but, unlike most other healthcare students, they are not entitled to the same level of funding. Medical students are only allowed to take a maximum \u201ctop up\u201d student maintenance loan of \u00a31,975 per year, roughly \u00a38,000 less than the standard for all other students. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Medical students do, however, receive a means-tested NHS bursary which can vary from anywhere between \u00a32,207 to \u00a33,191 with an additional non-means-tested \u00a31000 grant<\/a>. But other healthcare students, such as nursing students, receive a \u00a35,000 non-means-tested NHS bursary for each academic year. This NHS bursary has proved invaluable for some and has supported them whilst they pursue their careers in healthcare. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

When asked about the financial support available for medical students, a University of Manchester spokesperson said: \u201cThe University has invested in one of the most generous support packages in the UK for students in financial hardship; approximately a third of all our undergraduate UK students will receive bursaries of up to \u00a32,000 per year. This includes the University\u2019s Living Cost Support Fund and more information is available here<\/a> and here<\/a>. The Royal Medical Benevolent Fund also offers specific support<\/a> to medical students.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The #LiveableNHSBursary campaign aims to achieve: parity between medical students and other healthcare courses, have the means test removed, and give all medical students full access to the NHS learning support fund.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Medical students are also expected to complete unpaid clinical placements alongside their studies which often leads to students struggling to juggle their responsibilities. Penny explained the lengths some students are going to in an attempt to pay their bills: \u201cYou\u2019re on placement five times a week on 9 til 5 shifts, going home and studying for three or four hours or going straight to work. Some students work night shifts and double weekend shifts just to make ends meet.\u201d  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the subject of clinical placements, a University of Manchester spokesperson said: \u201cAll clinical placements form part of a medical student\u2019s studies; it is an essential part of learning to be a doctor and preparing to practise medicine safely. As students become more senior, they take on more tasks, safely supervised, within the clinical teams they are on placement with \u2013 this is so they are ready to start working as a doctor when they graduate.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Penny told us the goal of the movement on Twitter \u201c \u2026 is about encouraging people to share their stories of living on such a small amount in their final year.\u201d The hashtag has already garnered considerable interest on Twitter with several students\u2019 stories going viral. She said, \u201cwe\u2019ve already seen stories of people working two jobs, people not being able to pay their rent and people struggling to plan their jobs\/lives around placement rotas.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A post shared on Twitter by a medical student confirmed the struggles faced by many students \u201cI currently have two jobs to help fund Uni. This is on top of balancing placement time, academic opportunities and socialising\/relaxing. I feel like I have no time to destress and my mental and physical health has suffered as a result. #LiveableNHSbursary<\/a>\u201d. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The four founders of the campaign: Top Left: Penny, Top Right: Trisha, Bottom Left: Michaela, Bottom Right: Eilidh. The #LiveableNHSBursary campaign was created by Eilidh…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[65,614,391,58],"tags":[38,39,613,33,42],"class_list":["post-976","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-dauk-news","category-student-bursary","category-students","category-the-nhs","tag-dauk","tag-doctors-association-uk","tag-liveablenhsbursary","tag-press","tag-the-doctors-association-uk"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dauk.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/976","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dauk.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dauk.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dauk.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dauk.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=976"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dauk.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/976\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dauk.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=976"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dauk.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=976"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dauk.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=976"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}