The number of nursing students is falling in all regions of England

The college has analyzed regional figures from the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (UCAS) between 2020 and 2023 and found that the number of people studying to become nurses has fallen in all parts of the country.

“To fix a broken NHS, the government must fix a broken model of nursing education.”

Nicola Ranger

Nationally, the data showed that there was a 19% decline in the number of admissions to pre-registration nursing courses between the 2020-21 (24,950) and 2023-24 (20,160) academic years.

However, in some areas the numbers had fallen even more.

The North East of England saw a 40% fall in course admissions over the three-year period, from 1,580 to 945. This was the only English region where admissions fell below 1,000 in the 2023/24 academic year.

The South West, Yorkshire and Humberside each saw declines of 25%, while the East of England also saw uptake, down 22%, higher than the national average.

The RCN said these regions are likely to see a decline in the number of available nurses in the coming years, as many of them work in the region where they study.

There was also a decline in uptake in all other regions: the South East by 19%, the North West by 18%, the East Midlands by 15%, the West Midlands by 14% and London by 12%.

The union warned that this trend could have a significant impact on nurses in the coming years and reiterated calls for reform of nursing degree finances.

Specifically, it called for the implementation of a program that would waive student loans for anyone who works in the NHS for a certain period of time after completing and registering.

Professor Nicola Ranger, general secretary and chief executive of the RCN, said “high debt” and a “lack of financial support” were driving the decline in the number of students enrolling on pre-registration courses.

“Nursing is an incredible profession, but to fix a broken NHS the Government must fix a broken model of nursing education,” she said.

“There are tens of thousands of vacancies in the NHS alone and demand for services continues to rise. We desperately need more people to enter this profession, but the reality is that the numbers in nursing are going in the wrong direction.”

Professor Ranger said the Government needed to make nursing an “attractive profession” if it wanted to boost numbers and achieve its goal of overhauling and modernizing the NHS.

Caroline Waterfield, director of development and employment at NHS Employers, said the figures point to a “much bigger” problem for the future of the NHS workforce than previously thought.

She said: “This is an issue we cannot ignore.

“History tells us that every time we have previously had a seismic decline in total training from one year to the next – unrelated to changes in service planning and delivery – this reverberates across the industry after three to five years applies and this is the case.” is not easy to fix.

However, she noted that the pathway had helped to increase the number of nurse training courses in “many parts of the UK”.

“Both university courses and nursing training are needed to ensure we have the right number of professionals to continue to provide care in the future,” Ms Waterfield said.

“The NHS is facing increasing demand and it is important we have the workforce we need to meet this problem.”