Image: Vudi Xhymshiti, via Shutterstock
Education committee leader Robert Halfon grills Johnson over nursing students’ fees
Prime minister Boris Johnson has promised to shed light on whether student nurses working for the NHS during the coronavirus pandemic are liable for tuition fees, as the issue reaches the top of government.
During a grilling by the influential House of Commons liaison committee on 27 May, Conservative MP and chair of the House of Commons education committee Robert Halfon asked Johnson to clarify whether “every student who is working in the NHS during the coronavirus [should] have their tuition fees reimbursed this academic year at the very least?”
Although Johnson did not answer the question, he said he would “come back” to Halfon on the issue and promised the government would “give you an answer as soon as we possibly can”.
Johnson’s pledge comes after education secretary Gavin Williamson promised to come back to Halfon with answers on the same issue after Halfon questioned him during an education committee hearing on 29 April. Halfon put the question to Williamson after speaking to Research Professional News about the issue. Williamson has still not responded.
Research Professional News is calling on the government to immediately guarantee that students joining the NHS front line during the coronavirus pandemic will not pay tuition fees while they work, as part of our Our Debt, Not Theirs campaign.
Writing today in Research Professional News, Halfon stressed that there was “no clarity” on whether student nurses—particularly final-year students who have joined a temporary register to start work early—will continue to pay tuition fees while providing their “vital service” for the NHS.
“The government has rightly scrapped the extra charge NHS staff and care workers from overseas were having to pay towards the health service,” Halfon wrote. “In the same way, student nurses working in the NHS should be financially supported in every way possible.”
Halfon added that he had “always been a strong advocate of nursing degree apprenticeships”, which allow students to take a nursing degree without paying tuition fees. He said he hoped “there can now be a renewed focus on this underused method for entering such a valued profession.”
But he warned that the number of applications for nursing degrees has fallen by around a third since bursaries for nursing students were scrapped in 2017. Halfon added that while a return of maintenance grants was welcome, “there is more work to be done to attract students to this most valuable of professions”.