Tuition fee increase is ‘bad news for patient care’

Today (4 November) Secretary of State for Education Bridget Phillipson announced that students in England will pay more for their university courses from the 2025/26 academic year. 

Changes made in 2016 saw bursaries for nurse education scrapped, meaning students currently pay up to £9,250 each year to join the profession. Students in England will now pay £9,535 per year. That's an increase of around 3.1%, which the government says is linked to inflation.

We say it’s now more urgent that the government introduces financial incentives including a loan forgiveness model for nursing students who commit to working in the NHS following graduation, and funding for living costs. This is vital to increase recruitment into the profession.

Our analysis of the latest regional data from the university admissions service, UCAS, shows the number of people accepted onto nursing courses fell in every region in England – up to 40% in some areas – between 2020 and 2023. Last week, ahead of the chancellor’s budget, we warned that entire regions in England are being left behind by a failing nurse education system. This is putting the government’s plan to rescue the NHS at risk.

RCN General Secretary and Chief Executive Professor Nicola Ranger said: “As student nurse numbers collapse in every English region, ministers decide to make a bad situation worse. 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. 
 
“The tuition fee model has proven to be an unmitigated failure for nursing education, punishing students with high levels of debt whilst driving down the numbers entering the profession. Yet again, there has been no increase in the maintenance grant for nursing students. Ministers were able to quickly and effectively diagnose a broken NHS but have failed to do so with nurse education.  
 
“The Prime Minister said he was committed to ensuring services have ‘the right trained staff in the right numbers.’ That pledge has taken a significant blow today. Without a better model for nurse education and bringing forward new investment, the government has no hope of transforming care. A loan forgiveness model for nursing staff in England who commit to working in the NHS and public services must be part of the new measures.” 

The NHS Long Term Workforce Plan aims to grow the nursing workforce from around 350,000 nurses to around 550,000 by 2036/37. However, our analysis from last week shows the plan is not yet affecting numbers, with just 1,000 extra people a year currently forecast to start nursing courses in 2029 compared with a decade earlier. There are currently over 31,000 unfilled nursing posts in England’s NHS.