This story was first published in digitalhealth.net
Immediate investment needed nursing higher education
Following news around government spending and unpaid student debt, the Royal College of Nusing is calling for immediate investment in nursing higher education in England.
With the Office for National Statistics (ONS) claiming unpaid student debt should be treated as capital government spending rather than government lending, the nursing union has argued that applications for nursing courses are being affected by the removal of their bursary and being hit with taking on this level of debt.
Since 2017, when the bursary was removed, students studying nursing in England have had to take out loans to fund both their tuition and to support themselves while studying. The RCN says that in 30 years’ time the government will have to write off £1.2 billion in unpaid debt from these loans each year.
The Fund Our Future campaign has been calling on the government to look again at how it funds nursing higher education, including putting a minimum of £1 billion a year back into the system to support nursing students.
Dame Donna Kinnair, acting RCN chief executive, said: “This highlights the false economy of slapping high debts on students who are never able to repay them. For nursing students, we know it was the removal of their bursary and being hit with taking on this level of debt for the first time that meant applications began to dwindle. This announcement by the ONS further supports what the RCN has been calling for – it makes more sense to spend money now to encourage people to study nursing.”
There has been a substantial drop in applicants to nursing courses since changes to nursing degree funding were announced in 2016 and in September this year nearly 900 fewer nursing students started at university compared to the same time in 2016.
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