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MEDICAL students are urging the government to rethink plans for tuition fees so future doctors are not saddled with greater debts than most other students.

The British Medical Association medical students committee has written to education ministers David Blunkett and Kim Howells demanding "equity".

They are unhappy that medical students will have to pay tuition fees in their fourth year. This is despite the government already agreeing that they will be exempt in the fifth year, with the Department of Health covering their fees.

The students fear that four years of fees, on top of loans, will put people off applying for medicine.