How are medicine degrees funded?

Funding your first four years of study

If you're planning to study a medicine degree, you can apply for the same Tuition Fee and Maintenance Loans as any other undergraduate student for your first four years of study.

Funding your fifth and further years of study

In your fifth year (and further years of study) you can apply to your national health authority to have your tuition fees paid to the University as a non-repayable NHS grant. You can also apply for a non-repayable bursary as well as a reduced-rate Maintenance Loan for living costs from the Student Loans Company.

Your funding is split between two sources:

• Your national Student Finance office (Student Finance England, Student Finance Wales, or Student Finance Northern Ireland) for a reduced rate of Maintenance Loan
• Your national health authority (NHS Business Services Authority(opens in new tab), NHS Wales Student Awards Unit(opens in new tab), or the Department of Health Northern Ireland(opens in new tab)) for your tuition fees to be paid (plus a bursary)

Tuition fees

You don't need to take out a Tuition Fee Loan in your fifth and further years of study. This is because your tuition fees are paid to the University for you as a non-income assessed, non-repayable grant. You need to apply for this from your national health authority.

Maintenance Loan

From your fifth year of study, you can claim a reduced rate of Maintenance Loan from your Student Finance office. This is not means-tested, so household income doesn't affect this loan.

Intercalation

Intercalation is when you interrupt your medicine degree to study a different course for a year. This can be a year of either a bachelor's degree or master's degree.

If you're interested in this pathway while studying medicine:

• Research which course best suits your interests, goals and intended area of expertise. Intercalate.co.uk(opens in new tab) can help with this.
• Once you've chosen a course to intercalate, research whether it will fit between the academic years of your medicine degree, without any overlaps in term dates. This is crucial, as any clashing of term dates will cause issues with student finance and with registering on the intercalated course or back onto your medicine degree.
• Discuss intercalation with our School of Medicine's Clinical Academic Training Office (CATO). They can advise on any possible additional funding for the intercalated course.

You can also contact the Student Financial Guidance Team to discuss your options further, as there are different funding scenarios depending on which course you want to intercalate and when you want to do it.

If medicine is your second degree

If you already hold a degree qualification but wish to study our MBChB Medicine course as a second degree, you can still receive some funding for this.

For your first four years of study, you can claim a Maintenance Loan from Student Finance England. However, you won't be entitled to a Tuition Fee Loan, so you'll need to pay your own tuition fees. From your fifth year of study, you can apply for funding the same way as students studying MBChB Medicine as their first degree.

University scholarships and bursaries

We offer a range of scholarships and bursaries, some of which apply for medicine students. These are financial awards that don't need to be paid back.

Student Financial Guidance

For more information on Student Finance and how to fund your medicine degree, please contact our Student Financial Guidance Team on studentfinancialguidance@sunderland.ac.uk(opens in new tab) or 0191 515 2284(opens in new tab).