CLEVELAND (AP) — The Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine of Case Western Reserve University announced Thursday that it will cover all future tuition charges, part of a trend as schools try to relieve education debts for new doctors.
The research hospital said it would pay Case, its academic affiliate in the joint venture, the $43,500-per-student tuition bills beginning July, covering both new and returning students.
The school, which enrolls 32 students each year, will graduate its first class in 2009. The Cleveland Clinic hopes to raise money to offer the tuition scholarships through its endowment.
Nationally, there is a trend among medical schools to help students meet high tuition costs, with the average medical school student graduating with a debt of nearly $140,000, forcing many new doctors to choose higher-paying specialties.
The clinic sweetened the pot for returning students, offering to repay half of their out-of-pocket tuition costs since they arrived for the five-year program which trains doctor-researchers.
“By providing full tuition support, we want to ensure that debt does not hinder the ability of our graduates to pursue academic careers as physician scientists,” said Dr. Delos M. “Toby” Cosgrove, president and CEO of the clinic.
Lerner executive dean Dr. Andrew Fishleder said the goal was to make it financially possible for doctors to take lower-paying doctor-researcher jobs because they won’t be burdened with tuition debts.
“We recognized from the outset that if you have really substantial debt when you leave medical school, it has the potential to influence your specialty choice and your career choice, and private practice is certainly more lucrative that academic medicine,” he said.
The Association of American Medical Colleges said there have been a number of recent moves by medical schools to cover all or virtually all tuition.
Last month the new University of Central Florida medical school announced the completion of a fundraising drive to provide tuition-free education. The Yale and Harvard medical schools also announced programs recently to sharply reduce tuition payments for middle-income families.
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