免除医学生学费，纽约大学的惊世之举意义何在？

上周四，知名学府纽约大学公布了一条惊人的消息：医学生将获得全额学费奖学金。正在就读的医学生可以享受，未来进入纽约大学医学院就读的学生也一样，学费将永远免除。纽约大学此举开了美国医学院的先例。

毋庸置疑，该决定耗资不菲。据《华尔街日报》报道，纽约大学该项目每年为医学生提供略高于5.5万美元的奖学金，计划募集约6亿美元，已经向美国家装建材零售商家得宝公司创始人肯尼思·朗格尼及其夫人伊琳·朗格尼等支持者募得约4.5亿美元。（2008年收到肯尼思·朗格尼的2亿美元捐赠后，纽约大学的医学中心更名为朗格尼医学中心。）

这一决定对有志学医的学生意义重大，再加上纽约大学医学院一直排名前列，影响更是显著。“随着高等学府让渴望成为医生的年轻人背上越来越沉重的债务，这项决策解决了一项重要的道德问题，”纽约大学医学院院长兼纽约大学朗格尼医学中心首席执行官罗伯特.I.格罗斯曼在声明中表示。

美国医学院学会（AAMC）数据显示，2017年，美国医学院学生人均助学贷款约为19.1万美元，私立学校的人均贷款额约为20.6万美元。医学教育给学生带来不堪重负的债务，已经对潜在学生和美国医学等领域的未来格局造成影响。即使满怀热情想投身医学，低收入家庭和少数族裔的学生也可能因为担心财力而放弃梦想。正在就读的医学生则可能迫于压力，为获得更高的收入弥补高学费，而选择攻读冷门的医学专业，避而不选更广泛的基础医疗专业。

AAMC认为，专业偏科问题已十分严重。到2030年，相比医疗保健医师，预计美国将缺少4.26万到12.13万医生。这是将专科医生和全科医生都算在内的需求缺口，理论上说纽约大学的奖学金项目可能给有志从医的学子减轻负担，也有望鼓励未来的医生放心投身事业。（财富中文网）

译者：Pessy

审校：夏林

On Thursday, NYU made a stunning announcement: All of the renowned institution’s medical students will be awarded full tuition scholarships. That includes current students, the remainder of whose tuition will be covered under the program, and every single incoming and future medical student at the NYU School of Medicine, in perpetuity, whose tuition costs will be covered in full, according to the university. That’s a first for any medical college in America.

This is, it goes without saying, not a cheap endeavor. The yearly tuition costs covered under this medical scholarship amount to just over $55,000 per year, and the effort involved raising some $450 million to date (of more than $600 million planned) from supporters such as Home Depot founder Kenneth Langone and his wife Elaine, the Wall Street Journal reports. (NYU’s medical center was renamed after Langone following the billionaire’s $200 million donation to it in 2008.)

The practical implications for students pursuing medicine are myriad, especially at a school consistently ranked towards the top of its peers. “This decision recognizes a moral imperative that must be addressed, as institutions place an increasing debt burden on young people who aspire to become physicians,” said Dr. Robert I. Grossman, Dean of NYU School of Medicine and CEO of NYU Langone Health in a statement.

The crushing weight of debt that medical education places on students—debt that averaged some $191,000 across all schools and more than $206,000 for private schools in 2017, according to the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC)—has consequences for prospective students and the future contours of U.S. medicine alike. Low-income and minority students aspiring to become healers may forgo those dreams out of financial apprehension; those who do attend may feel pressure to pursue niche medical specialties that pay higher salaries so they can recoup their tuition costs rather than pursue broader primary care careers.

The latter reality is particularly problematic since, according to the AAMC, there is a projected doctor shortage of between 42,600 and 121,300 physiciansrelative to Americans’ health care needs by 2030. While that figure includes estimated shortages for both specialists and general practitioners, the NYU program could theoretically reduce the burden of entry to either and, the hope goes, free up would-be doctors to pursue the careers they want to begin with.