English Take Welsh Nurse Degrees

Would-be nurses from England are doing their degrees in Wales because they automatically get bursaries of £6,372.

For student nurses on degree courses in England the National Health Service bursaries are means tested.

The number of English students applying for nursing degrees in Wales has more than trebled since 2003, Nursing Standard newspaper reported.

The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) wants the government to equalise the system throughout the UK.

The same principle applies for English students going to Scotland or Northern Ireland though fewer have been doing so.

Darzi review

At Cardiff University, nearly half of the students on the degree in children’s nursing are reported to be from England.

RCN student adviser Gill Robertson said she expected the eventual outcome following Lord Darzi’s review of the NHS to be that nursing in England would also become a graduate profession.

“We think it should be a degree profession and students going through that should receive the non-means tested bursary,” she said.

In England, where nursing is not yet a wholly graduate profession, about 84% of students take diplomas rather than degrees.