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Tuition fees confusion for fast-tracked health students

Guidance for final-year nurses working on Covid-19 front lines still unclear on loan debt

Nursing students who join the NHS frontline during the coronavirus pandemic have been promised they will not “suffer financially” as a result, but students are still in the dark on whether they will pay tuition fees.

Final-year students who have completed the clinical practice parts of their course will automatically be enrolled onto a temporary nursing register so they can work on coronavirus wards, taking an “authorised break in studies” while they work.

In guidance for students, Health Education England promised that final-year students who join the NHS early “would be allowed to continue their studies once this is over” and would not “suffer financially” because of the pandemic.

“Government will be working with education providers to facilitate this so that students do not suffer financially as a result of the Covid-19 response,” the health body wrote.

Although Health Education England promised those students will “be treated as being in attendance for the purpose of student finance” and will receive maintenance loans, tuition fees are not mentioned in the guidance. Research Professional News has asked the Department for Education for clarity on whether final-year students will continue to pay tuition fees while they work on coronavirus wards.

In a letter to students, chief allied health professions officer for England Suzanne Rastrick and allied health professions lead for Health Education England Beverly Harden told students they “still retain the status of a ‘student’ and will continue to access and receive funding from the Student Loans Company, including your student loan” regardless of whether they choose to work on wards or not.

According to the guidance, final-year students who have not completed all their placements, and students in their first year of postgraduate study or their second year of undergraduate study, must either opt in to receive “revised programme delivery” or accept an “authorised break in studies”.

If students do choose to work during the pandemic, universities will work with students to “maximise the opportunity for work hours to count as clinical placement time where possible” but students “may also be asked to carry out duties that are not directly related to [their] programme of study”.

Asked about tuition fees, a spokesperson for the Department for Education said: “We are grateful to all students who choose to support our NHS during this extremely difficult time and will be ensuring all students who do opt in are rewarded fairly for their hard work.”