Media release

AMA supports abolition of the student learning entitlement (SLE)

The AMA today urged all parties and Independents to vote for the abolition of the student learning entitlement (SLE), which requires tertiary students to pay full fees after they have received seven years of Commonwealth-supported study.

The Higher Education Support Amendment (Demand Driven Funding System and Other Measures) Bill 2011, which is being debated in the Lower House today, will abolish the SLE if passed.

But media reports and media statements suggest that the Coalition wants to retain the SLE, which was introduced by the then Coalition Government in 2005 with the purpose of penalising so-called ‘professional students’.

AMA President, Dr Steve Hambleton, said today that the SLE unfairly affects medical students.

“There are now 11 medical schools that offer graduate entry to medical school programs that require an applicant to have already completed a Bachelor degree,” Dr Hambleton said.

“Graduate entry programs normally run for four to four-and-a-half years.

“Graduate entry students, many of them medical students, are older and often have families.

“Medicine is a very demanding course and some students simply cannot comply with the seven-year cut-off.

“These are not ‘professional students’.  They are among our best and brightest minds who will in a few years be helping deliver key medical services to the Australian community.

“These students should be supported and encouraged, not penalised by ill-directed legislation.

“They must not be hit with high fees that undermine equity of access simply because they cannot comply with arbitrary and unfair cut-off arrangements for the completion of their medical degrees. 

“The AMA supports the complete abolition of the SLE and urges all MPs and Senators to vote against any attempts to retain the SLE,” Dr Hambleton said.


14 June 2011

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