It's all about the MONEY...

I am always greatly surprised and intrigued at the result of a totally random discussion. Anyway, this blog is a result of a discussion and a lot of mathematics.

Although this may not be Fermat's Last Theorem, it involves nonetheless, figures which are or stunning significance. This is ONLY the tuition fee paid by each RCSI student.

RCSI has 3 tiers of tuition fees for Medical Students. Firstly, the EU school leavers are covered under the Government Free Fees Scheme. Secondly, there are Non EU school leavers who had to pay €38,500 for the 2006 academic year. Lastly, there are students under the PMC/RCSI Twinning Programme, like my humble self, who pay a special rate of €25,000 a year.

Taking the PMC/RCSI Tuition Fee as the basis for this calculation, thats €25,000.

During the academic year of 2006/2007, which is Junior Cycle 1 & 2, we have had 295 50-minute lectures, 8 50-minute Case Based Tutorials & 36 90-minute Anatomy classes.

This bring a total of 18,390 of teaching minutes that each student receives.

Dividing the amount of teaching minutes with the tuition fees paid, 18390 minutes / €25,000, this equals €1.36/minute of teaching minutes paid.

Using the exchange rate for today available on XE.com of €1=RM4.67, this means the PMC students pay RM6.35 per minute to attend RCSI or RM317.38 for each 50-minute lecture, or RM571.29 for each 90-minute anatomy class.

If this is considered expensive, what more the fees that the Non EU school leavers who are not under the twinning program pay!!!

To me, this is an incredible amount of money spent on an education. So the next time you fall asleep in class, or decide not to go and do not do any work to catch up, or decide to play games or go out instead of going to class, think TWICE or 6.35 times before doing so...

p.s. The price of the tuition fees are expected to increase further for the 2007 academic year...
p.s. Neither does this include the cost of living in Dublin...
p.s. Click on the RM6.35 per minute link above...