Medicine at university

I need some help just in general with Medicine.
a) How can you pay tution fees and accomadation/living fees. Basically me just not understanding how the whole paying for uni works
b) When studying medicine, can you work at the nhs while doing your course, on top of the placements, to earn money?
c) Im thinking about training to be a psychiatrist after graduating from medicine, and i dont know if all the years of training + medicine degree would be worth it, and would it just be better for me to train to become a clinical psychologist instead where theres less training

Reply 1

artful_lounger

Universities Forum Helper

Hi, I've moved your thread to the student financial support forum - the Ask Student Finance England forum is for specific questions to SFE about applying for student loans and such rather than more general questions about financial management at uni :smile:

Regarding your queries:

a) If you're a home fees/domestic student, normally you would apply for loans from Student Finance England. Home fees students resident in the UK for at least 3 years before their course with no previous study at university level will usually be entitled to a tuition fee loan (covering the full tuition fees) which is paid directly to the uni by SFE, and a maintenance loan which is means tested and paid to the student for covering their living costs. For the first 4 years of a medicine degree this is the finance format for home fees students - in the 5th and if applicable 6th year, the tuition fees are paid by an NHS bursary (you don't need to pay those back) and you get an NHS bursary for your maintenance costs, although this is much lower than the maintenance loan normally. You may be able to apply for a reduced maintenance loan in those years however.

For international students there is pretty much almost no external funding available from the UK government. Usually international students self fund or are funded by the government of their home country.

b) In principle I can't see why not, albeit you wouldn't be able to work as a doctor obviously. I think it's not uncommon for medical students to work as HCAs or such though? Of course you could also look at any kind of casual student work really, provided you feel you are able to balance it with your studies.

c) Qualifying as a clinical psychologist also takes a long time and is extraordinarily competitive. Many applicants to the DClinPsy will have multiple masters degrees, a PhD, and a wealth of clinical work experience. It's not just a case of "do 3 year BSc then 3 year DClinPsy". There are also fundamental differences in what each does.