In response to UCAS figures released today, Vanessa Wilson, University Alliance CEO, said:
“It’s fantastic to see an increase in those from disadvantaged backgrounds increasingly applying to university. A university education remains a key pathway to achieve better lifetime earnings and opportunities and we must continue to ensure that students from all backgrounds are able to make the most of those opportunities.
It’s great that so many students have secured their first choice this year. For those young people that didn’t get the places they wanted, they shouldbe reassured: clearing is there to provide a comprehensive support service, and university admissions teams are on hand to make it as easy as possible to find the right option for you.
A big congratulations to everyone receiving results today: whatever your results, you have worked hard to get here, and you should be proud of this achievement.”
On the small increase in nursing acceptances:
Vanessa Wilson, University Alliance CEO, said:
“Delivering the NHS Long Term Workforce Plan is of huge importance to the future of healthcare in the UK, and it won’t be delivered without training significantly more nurses.
I am very pleased to see that nursing acceptances are marginally up on last year, but we will need a substantially greater number of nursing students to meet the aims of the Long-Term Workforce Plan. The ongoing decline in the number of mature students studying nursing is a trend to watch. These students may be particularly affected by the cost-of-living crisis, and we urge the government to increase student maintenance support as a matter of urgency to ensure we can continue to attract the NHS workforce of the future.
There needs to be a concerted cross-government effort, working with both NHS England and training providers, like the universities in University Alliance, to grow both student interest and training capacity.”
On the decline in interest for teacher training
Vanessa Wilson, University Alliance CEO, said:
“Delivering the government’s plan to recruit an extra 6,500 teachers will be contingent on scaling up the number of teachers universities can train. As it stands, teacher training is going in the wrong direction.
Government, the school sector, teacher training providers, and universities, must work together to reverse the trend of declining interest in teaching. It is time to look at the fees, grants and bursaries system around teacher training to truly incentivise people to apply for teacher training and stay in teaching once qualified.”
