Student interest in undertaking healthcare courses remains high, but more financial help should be offered to applicants to ensure that universities can support the “biggest recruitment drive in health service history”, according to research.

���� of 5,000 young people, commissioned by Universities UK and analysed by the Nuffield Trust, found that nearly three-quarters of them are considering or have considered a career in healthcare, with nursing (39 per cent), medicine (35 per cent) and midwifery (22 per cent) the most popular courses.

But from the admissions service Ucas – released this week – showed continued declines in applications for healthcare-related programmes, with the number of applicants for nursing dropping to 31,100 – the lowest level in six years, and down from a pandemic peak of 46,040 in 2021.

Midwifery courses experienced similar declines, and applications to medicine and dentistry fell to 120,990 this year from 128,410 in 2023.

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Reacting to the figures, Rachel Hewitt, chief executive of MillionPlus, said it should “ring alarm bells” that students appear to be turning their backs on these courses given the “deeply entrenched existing shortages in these professions”.

The government has announced plans to recruit thousands of extra healthcare professionals as part of its long-term workforce plan for the NHS, but UUK said this requires people to be better incentivised to enrol on clinical courses and work in the health service after graduation.

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Its survey finds that about three-quarters of respondents say they would be more likely to choose to study a healthcare course at university if they received additional financial support, such as student loans being written off or higher maintenance support.

The reputation of healthcare careers was another decisive factor, with most survey participants believing they were paid poorly, had a poor work-life balance, were stressful and involved long hours.

Asked what might put them off studying a healthcare-related degree, concerns about workload, the financial pressures of repaying a student loan and covering costs while studying were the biggest factors.

Alistair Fitt, vice-chancellor of Oxford Brookes University and UUK’s health policy lead, said universities “stand ready to deliver through innovative approaches to education and training” but cautioned that “without bold and urgent change, ambitious plans for the future of the NHS in England are set to fall flat”.

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Billy Palmer, a senior fellow at the Nuffield Trust, said the findings bring “into stark relief the factors behind the avoidably high leaver rates during degrees and early on in clinicians’ careers”.

He said a student loan forgiveness scheme was “an instant and affordable way to increase the number of applications to clinical courses as well as reducing the numbers leaving during training or early in their career”.

The survey also finds that those eligible for free school meals are more likely to consider healthcare careers than other respondents, but young people whose parents did not go to university are less likely to consider studying medicine than those who had at least one parent with experience of higher education.

tom.williams@timeshighereducation.com