It is concerning that despite financial aid schemes, the cost of medical education remained a burden to students from lower income households in Singapore. Student debt and financial background may distort postgraduate career choices, creating an undue push toward high-paying specialties.

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INTRODUCTION Singapore has had three medical schools since 2013. We undertook a cross-sectional quantitative national survey to determine the financial impact of medical education on medical students in Singapore. METHODS All 1,829 medical students in Singapore were invited to participate in this study. Information on demographics, financial aid utilisation and outside work was collected and analysed. RESULTS 1,241 (67.9%) of 1,829 students participated in the survey. While the overall proportion of students from households with monthly incomes < SGD 3,000 was only 21.2% compared to the national figure of 31.4%, 85.4% of medical students expected to graduate with debts > SGD 75,000. There were significant differences in per capita incomes among the schools, with 54.5%, 23.3% and 7.8% of Duke-NUS Medical School (Duke-NUS), NUS Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine (NUS Medicine) and Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine (LKCMedicine) students, respectively, reporting a per capita income of < SGD 1,000 (p < 0.001). There were significant differences in financial support: 75.0%, 34.1% and 38.8% of Duke-NUS, NUS Medicine and LKCMedicine students, respectively, received financial aid (p < 0.001). The top reasons for not applying for aid included a troublesome application process (21.4%) and the perception that it would be too difficult to obtain (21.0%). CONCLUSION Students in the three medical schools in Singapore differ in their financial needs and levels of financial support received. A national approach to funding medical education may be needed to ensure that financial burdens do not hamper the optimal training of doctors for Singapore’s future.