Nurse tuition: ‘I owe £82,000 – how are fee rises going to help?’
Posted 05 November 2024 - 17:30
Heavily in debt nurse warns plans to hike university fees could ramp up staffing crisis and RCN calls move ‘significant blow’ to students and nurse education
A nurse with more than £80,000 in student debts has warned that plans to hike up tuition fees could ramp up the nursing recruitment and retention crisis as leaders warn of ‘terrible financial pressures’ already faced by undergraduates.
Psychiatric liaison nurse Dan Beglin shared his current student loan balance on social media – standing at a whopping £82,082.76 for his nursing degree and maintenance loan costs.
Hike in tuition fees ‘will only discourage prospective students’ from joining nursing profession
Mr Beglin, who graduated in nursing from King’s College London in September 2023, said: ‘This is how much I owe for my nursing degree and maintenance loan. How is an increase in tuitions fees going to help with the retention crisis within the NHS? In short, it won’t and will only discourage more prospective students from joining.’
Mr Beglin’s comments followed the government’s announcement on Monday that university tuition fees are set to increase by 3.1% to £9,535 from next year. Meanwhile, maintenance loans are also set to increase by 3.1% to help students cope with rising costs of living.
The RCN called the move a ‘significant blow’ to nurse education as recent regional figures from the university admissions service showed the number of people accepted onto nursing courses fell by up to 40% in some regions between 2020 and 2023.
Union calls for loan forgiveness scheme to improve nurse recruitment and retention
With registered nurses typically going on to work in the region where they study, the RCN says it is concerned this could mean future nurse supply shortages in the same local areas. They called for a loan forgiveness scheme model to improve recruitment and retention of the domestically educated workforce.
‘As nursing student numbers collapse in every English region, ministers decide to make a bad situation worse,’ said the RCN’s general secretary Nicola Ranger.
‘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.
‘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.’
Nursing students face ‘terrible financial pressures’ and are forced to pick up bank shifts
Birmingham Newman University head of adult nursing Kevin Crimmons echoed support for a loan forgiveness scheme. ‘There are terrible financial pressures on our students to work owing to the funding model currently in place. Nursing students are forced to pick up bank shifts as support workers on top of the mandated 37-hour week they have to put in when on placement to support themselves.
‘I am absolutely behind loan forgiveness after three years work within the health service or social care sector. This has to be more cost-effective and morally defensible than taking nurses from the healthcare systems in developing countries.’
Increase in tuition fees ‘proportionate and reasonable’, says health secretary
But the secretary of state for health and social care Wes Streeting defended the move on Sky News on Tuesday, telling viewers it was a ‘proportionate and reasonable thing to do’.
He added: ‘I think the risk is if we didn’t put the fee price and the maintenance support up in line with inflation then students really would be sold short because the investment in their teaching wouldn’t keep up with rising cost pressures.’
What are the changes to student finance fees?
- Annual tuition fees in England to rise from £9,250 to £9,535 from 2025-2026
- Part-time student fees cap will go up by £210 making the yearly maximum fee £7,145
- Maintenance loan will increase by £317 for students living away from home and studying outside London, totalling £10,544 annually
- Healthcare maintenance grant remains the same at £5,000
- The Lifelong Loan Entitlement will come into force in England from the 2026-2027 academic year. This will help people up to the age of 60 gain access to flexible student finance for up to four years' worth of post-18 education
- In September 2023, the student loan repayment threshold was lowered to £25,000 per annum from £27,295 so lower earners start paying back sooner
Sources: GOV.UK: Blog: The Education Hub (2024); MoneySavingExpert (2023)
Find out more
- GOV.UK: Blog: The Education Hub (2024) Student fees and maintenance loan increase: what you need to know
- MoneySavingExpert (2023) ‘Lifelong loans’ to launch in 2025 to help those in England wanting to study, train or retrain later in life
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