Nursing degree applications fall for fourth year

The number of students applying to nursing courses in the UK has fallen for a fourth year, said UCAS.

Only 30,550 have applied this year, down 15,000 applicants from 2021, the university admissions body has said.

The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) said many students cannot afford to study due to additional pressures such as working part time to support themselves.

Rakhee Aggarwal, head of school for health and social care at the University of Gloucestershire (UoG), said capturing students' imagination is "really important" to drive numbers up.

Ms Aggarwal said there had been a "slight dip" in application numbers to the university, with interviews for 250 prospective students being organised for the next academic year.

But following the University of Cardiff's proposal to cut nursing courses due to a lack of applications, more students have now approached UoG.

"What we have seen is a number of enquiries from our Welsh students... increasingly coming to us over the last week or so to make enquiries," she said.

"People saw the value of the NHS in Covid. I think capturing that imagination back is going to be really important in pivoting those numbers to think about nursing."

Lorna Mayles from the RCN said many students just cannot afford to take up the degree.

She said students are required to do clinical placement hours on top of academic work, and many are picking up part-time jobs to support themselves financially.

"It's devastating news," she said.

"We want to see loan forgiveness to support people to apply to nursing as part of attracting people into the profession."

Additionally, Ms Mayall said attracting international students can be "a challenge" as numbers have fallen.

"They are not entitled to the same support as domestic students," she said.

"It does have a huge impact financially on the university they're going to, so if they're seeing less international students coming over, then the funding streams they get from that is a big part in why the nursing courses can't continue.

"Changes in the immigration laws and visa rules has had a huge impact."

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