Government wants universities to bid for more nursing places, claiming ‘unprecedented demand’
Universities are being asked to bid for extra places on nursing courses after the government claimed there is “unprecedented demand”, despite recent figures suggesting there are existing spaces on courses in nursing specialisms.
On 29 June, health and social care secretary Matt Hancock said there had been “huge demand from universities” for the extra healthcare spots, which were announced as part of the government’s temporary student numbers cap programme and designed to ease recruitment pressures caused by the fallout from the coronavirus pandemic. Hancock also confirmed that universities would be able to apply for more places—over and above the original 5,000 extra places—until 17 July, three weeks after the original 26 June deadline.
However, figures released by admissions body Ucas on 23 June revealed that around 40 per cent of adult nursing courses were still accepting applications to start in September or October, with some courses reporting up to 50 places available; mental health, child and learning disability nursing courses were among those with vacancies.
At the time, Ucas said the number of spaces was “likely to increase” due to the extra 5,000 places announced by the government.
A spokesperson for the Department for Health and Social Care explained that demand for the extra spaces varies around the country and that they covered a range of courses. The spokesperson added that the government had already received more than 5,000 applications for the extra places, and extending the deadline would allow universities to bid for more. There is now no cap on the number of extra places available, the spokesperson said—adding that it was “unlikely” to pass 10,000.
According to government guidance, universities should only bid for extra places when they can prove they have used their existing forecast plus 5 per cent—the amount allowed next year under the student number cap.
Bids should also show universities have enough capacity for clinical placements. In the guidance the government said it would “prioritise allocations, taking into account both course and geographical factors” if bids exceeded 5,000, and it could mean where universities apply “from the same region or for the same courses, places may be divided between them”.
Although student applications for nursing courses were up 6 per cent on 2019 at the 15 January deadline, at 45,430 in total, in March the National Audit Office said it was still lower than applications received in 2017.
Applications for nursing courses dropped by 11 per cent after bursaries for nursing courses were scrapped in 2017. While nursing students are still expected to pay tuition fees—including students who have worked for the NHS during the coronavirus pandemic—maintenance grants of up to £8,000 will be introduced in September.