Last chance for nursing course with bursary

Would-be nurses have a last chance to train on a fully funded course before bursaries are scrapped in England – if they are ready to start at the end of June.

The University of Birmingham is launching a June intake for its adult nursing undergraduate course, which will have no tuition fees and offer bursaries to successful applicants.

Nursing student bursaries will be scrapped in England from August, and replaced with tuition fees and loans.

Sole responder

The university is believed to be the only education provider to have responded to a call from Health Education England’s (HEE) West Midlands office to run an additional 30-place course starting in the last week of June.

The course will be open only to applicants who already meet the entry requirements and not to those awaiting A-level results.

Director of the pre-registration nursing programme at the University of Birmingham Ronnie Meechan said there had already been many enquiries about the course.

Growing interest

The nursing school has also been approached by students due to start in September who already meet the entry criteria.

They have been offered the chance to switch to the earlier course, although many have chosen to stick to their original start date, Mr Meechan said.

The deadline for applications is 19 May, with interviews due to take place over the subsequent two weeks.

Successful candidates will start on 26 June, with lectures running until the end of July.

They will then have a combination of reading weeks and a summer break before starting on placement in late August.

Local appeal

Some practicalities such as accommodation are still being worked out, but Mr Meechan expects many of the applicants to come from the local area.

He said: ‘It has been an exciting project and I’m happy to have been in the position to respond to the call.’

HEE, which commissions nursing courses, would not explain why the call had been put out or whether it was commissioning similar last-minute courses around the country, citing the pre-election purdah.

It confirmed that the places advertised form part of HEE’s nurse training commissioning commitment for the West Midlands, as set out in its workforce plan for 2016-17.

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