Kentucky medical school will freeze tuition for each class

Schools in Minnesota and Missouri also have used this approach to help ease students' debt concerns.

By Myrle Croasdale, AMNews staff. May 7, 2007.

When students enter the University of Kentucky College of Medicine in Lexington, they will know exactly what they are paying in tuition for each of their four years.

The school will set a tuition price for the incoming class and charge the students the same amount each year.

The University of Kentucky is believed to be the third medical school to initiate this form of tuition cap, said Jay Perman, MD, dean of the medical college. It is important, he said, because pupils are concerned about medical school debt, and they don't know precisely how big this loan will be by the time they graduate.

The pilot program is a gesture of support but not a solution to growing debt burden, which is becoming a barrier to those considering medicine. The Kentucky program will save in-state students paying $23,752 a year about $11,000 over four years, or about 10% of the $107,110 average debt for UK medical graduates in 2006.

Dr. Perman said the school had been increasing tuition 9% a year and likely would make similar hikes for each entering class. The school will re-evaluate the pilot in four years.

Current medical students also will benefit, school officials said, with each class having their tuition frozen for their remaining years.

Jenny Olges, a second-year medical student, will graduate with $100,000 in loans. "It gives us some peace of mind on what our tuition is going to be. The difficult part before was not knowing year to year how much the tuition was going to go up," Olges said.