Medical school tuition fees reach record levels as MD incomes shrink

At half the country's 16 faculties of medicine, 1996-97 tuition fees are a minimum 16% higher than last year, and more large increases loom on the horizon. Administrators increasingly support the idea that medical students and those in other professional degree programs should assume a greater proportion of the cost of their education because their future earning potential is higher than it is for graduates with other degrees. However, medical students say they are being saddled with huge debt loads. These debts may be harder to repay, because they are rising at the same time physicians' incomes are either stagnant or being cut.