The mooted reforms to higher education, announced by the Government this week include university tuition fees rising by 3.1% to £9,535 next year. According to the Royal College of Nursing (RCN), these plans would ‘make a bad situation worse,’ exacerbating worries of low staff levels across the nursing sector.
‘As student nurse numbers collapse in every English region, ministers decide to make a bad situation worse,’ said RCN General Secretary and Chief Executive Professor Nicola Ranger. ‘Today’s announcement will discourage more people from joining the profession. That means fewer highly skilled staff on wards and in communities. That is bad news for patient care and undermines the Government’s very own NHS reforms.’
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The Government insists the rise in fees – the first since 2017 – is necessary to end a funding crisis in the UK’s cash-strapped universities. According to Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson, the decisions made in the reform intend to ‘put universities on a firmer financial footing so they can deliver more opportunity for students and growth for our economy.’ In addition to the rising fees, maintenance loans will also provide up to £414 extra for students from low-income backgrounds.
The tuition fee model however, has been criticised for ‘driving down’ the amount of people entering the profession by Professor Ranger, who instead calls for increased maintenance grants and loan forgiveness for nursing staff. Currently, there are over 31,000 unfilled nursing posts in NHS England, with the number of people accepted into nursing courses falling by up to 40% in some regions.