Responding to a further decline in applications to study nursing in England, totalling a 35% collapse since 2021 according to Universities and Colleges Admissions Service’s data today, RCN General Secretary and Chief Executive, Professor Nicola Ranger, said:

“These figures are devastating for the nursing profession and a hammer blow for the government’s planned NHS reforms. Health services are battling with thousands of unfilled nurse jobs, and the horizon looks bleak - the numbers choosing nursing in England have plunged to a record low.

“The government needs to urgently grip this workforce crisis. Ministers must launch an urgent, fully funded student recruitment campaign this spring to turn this situation around before September’s intake.

“Today’s broken model of education funding impoverishes students and saddles them with debt, and it is turning people away from the nursing profession. Low starting salaries make a bad situation worse. This further student decline is dangerous for patient care.

“The government must take the opportunities this year to introduce a loan forgiveness model for those who commit to working in the NHS and public services, alongside universal, uplifted maintenance grants for nursing students.”

Ends

Notes to Editors

According to the latest UCAS figures for the January equal consideration deadline in 2025, the number of students applying to study nursing is at a record low since UCAS began publishing data in its current format in 2019. Since 2021, the number of applications has collapsed by 35% in England and by 34% across the entire of the United Kingdom.