What goes around, comes around: a history of medical tuition.

In this article the actual and relative costs of tuition at 3 Ontario medical schools are traced over the past 150 years. In addition, the factors that led to Ontario's nearly 4-decade experiment in private medical education (and to its eventual demise) are presented. In relative terms, tuition was stable for over a century, then declined (after 1960) as government support rose. Access to medical training for students from middle-income families may also have improved steadily until the late 1980s. Because there is no shortage of people wanting to become doctors, there seems to be no limit to the price that could be set for a medical education. The recent hikes in tuition have outstripped inflation and may be reducing accessibility to restrictive levels, similar to those that prevailed in the 19th century. The author invites readers to question current trends.