Demand for university nursing places falls trends now
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Nursing applications at British universities are down by nearly 20 per cent.
A total of 596,590 students applied to all undergraduate courses by the January deadline – 2.3 per cent less than last year, according to Ucas, the body that handles applications.
However, interest in nursing courses fell by 18.6 per cent compared with January 2022, while applicants to education teaching courses went down by 15.6 per cent.
Pat Cullen, general secretary and chief executive of the Royal College of Nursing, said: ‘These figures are damning for the Government. Not only are they losing record nurses from the NHS but they are... deterring the next generation.’
During the pandemic, applications to study nursing surged.
But Nick Hillman, director of the Higher Education Policy Institute think-tank, said recent strike action by nurses ‘highlighted the pressures endured by those in the profession’.
Interest in nursing courses fell by 18.6 per cent this January compared with January 2022
He added: ‘The decline in mature learners may also partly reflect the fact that the labour market is so tight at the moment, as there is less incentive to leave the labour market to study.
