Bank won't fund my medical course in England

Q&A:Last June I completed a biochemistry degree in Dublin and moved to England to start graduate medicine. When I started to look for ways to finance the degree, I hit about a 100 brick walls. My parents are not in a position to fund me.

I went to the local branch of the bank, where I have always banked, and was told there were no such loans for graduate students but to apply for a student loan with a reduced rate APR. Although a four-year course, I was told to apply for the funds for year one and to review it in year two.

The initial €11,000 interest- only facility proved to be too little. When I went to top up my loan to €20,000, the student officer became involved. She was surprised that a loan for the four years wasn’t put in place, but when I tried to get a four-year plan in place for a loan of €80,000, I was told I would need to put up front some sort of security. They released the extra money for first year but are looking for that security before releasing more funds and that they will probably want me to start full repayments on the loan.

The bank said they could look at topping up my parent’s mortgage on an interest-only basis and they could give me that money, but their mortgage isn’t with the AIB. I cannot afford to make full repayments either until I am a qualified doctor in 2015. Essentially, I am making the interest repayments from the loan money.

I need to find a solution as my funds will dry up in August and if I cannot get the financial support I will have to quit college to get a job and pay back this €20,000 the bank has already given me.

Ms S.O’B., England

There are two issues here. First, you are in an incredibly difficult position because of the rules covering grant aid across national boundaries; second, your bank appears to have been, at best, unhelpful in the mixed messages it has given on funding options, especially in your original application for financial support.

Desperate to fund your course, you have embarked without a clear four-year funding plan. I don’t have a clear answer for you and am running your query as much in the hope that someone may provide an answer to your plight as anything else. If colleges are accepting cross-border students, I would assume there must be some funding options available as not everyone is in a position to fund €80,000 or more from their own, or their parents’, resources.

If the bank is seeking security from a student whose parents are not in a position to provide financial support, it is effectively saying “we will support you but only under terms which we know are unobtainable” – a tidy way for it to tick a box saying it has offered finance while it has also imposed impossible conditions.

If your parents cannot fund your course, they are unlikely to be able to take on greater mortgage commitments – and in any case banks are supposed to be moving away from such approaches.

In relation to the arrangements between Irish banks and colleges to which you refer, these apply only to students entering graduate medicine programmes in Ireland – in UCD, UCC, University of Limerick and the Royal College of Surgeons.

Earlier this year, AIB pulled the plug on its scheme, citing the falling income of applicants following graduation and its impact on their ability to pay back the money. Bank of Ireland and Ulster Bank do have similar programmes but again only for Irish colleges.

I am certainly not fully across the funding programmes available in UK colleges but you might try again to approach the Student Finance Agency. There is some confusion between its offer for EU students (essentially where you must have been resident in England for three years before starting your course) and its rules for residents of the European Economic Area (EEA – which includes Ireland and all other EU states).

For this latter group, Student Finance offers help with tuition fees and “additional help” if you have lived in an EEA state (eg Ireland) for three years or more before your course starts, so you will be living in England on the first day of the academic year in which your course started and your course qualifies.

There is a further qualification that you should be working in England but it is unclear how restrictive this is or what type of work (and for how long) it is referring to.

That aside, having checked the website of your UK college, I see it offers Access to Learning Funds for students in financial difficulties “at any time during your course” – forms available at the college. These funds are given to colleges to assist students on low incomes “who may need extra financial support for their course and to stay in higher education”.

You can also apply to the Royal Medical Benevolent Fund, which arranges interest-free loans for students who suffer a sudden change in their financial circumstances. You should also approach the students union at your college; they are generally very experienced in such matters and aware of what is available.

Even if you think you do not tick all the boxes for any funding programme, apply anyway, making clear that the alternative is dropping out of your course.

I would not give up on banks yet either – here and in the UK – especially your current bank which faces the prospect of being out of pocket for €20,000 if you cannot complete your course or get employment that allows you to pay down that sum.

Finally, it is clear from your letter that you took very little down in writing in reference to your original dealings with your Irish bank. It is crucial that you note in writing at every stage with whom you are dealing, when, what it said in outline, any offer it made or reasons it gave for declining you.

This column is a reader service and is not intended to replace professional advice. Please send your questions to QA, c/o Dominic Coyle, The Irish Times, 24-28 Tara Street, Dublin 2, or to dcoyle@irishtimes.com. No personal correspondence will be entered into.