Calls for more support for healthcare students amid fall in applicants in Suffolk

It's thought the pandemics and the cost of living crisis is leading to a fall in applicants

Author: Jasmine OakPublished 7th Oct 2023

There are calls for more to to be to encourage people to apply to degrees in healthcare in Suffolk and across the UK.

It comes amid a fall in the number of applicants, despite the government stating it wants home-grown talent to help solve the NHS recruitment crisis.

UCAS figures for October show just under 22 thousand people (21,590) people applied for medical degrees in 2023, compared to over 24 thousand (24,210) in 2022.

The University of Suffolk in Ipswich offers various degrees in healthcare, although it is not itself a medical school.

Graph showing the amount of people applying to Medical degrees

Why are we seeing a decrease?

Deana Hazeldene is a Senior Lecturer in Radiography at the University of Suffolk. She told us there has been a steady decline for the past few years.

"We have seen a decline over the last few years and I think that's generic across all of the health care professions."

Deana Hazeldene: Lecturer in Diagnostic Radiography

She explained she believes the Covid-19 pandemic and the cost of living crisis are key factors in influencing people's decision to take on a medical degree.

"University is an amazing opportunity to get that education underpinned, but it is expensive and not everybody has got the financial backing behind them to be able to do that."

I think another big impact has been course fees - a few years ago the government were covering the course fees and unfortunately that has been withdrawn.

"So that has seen a significant change in the demographic in the kind of students coming through as well."

Deana told us she would be surprised if the government continued not to fund medical degrees. "Otherwise people are just not going to be choosing the healthcare professions to be training in."

Although there has been a decline in applications Deana still believes there is a large interest in the medical profession.

"I would imagine there are some people who are desperate to do health care programmes and be a qualified health care professional but for whatever reasons are being prevented from doing that."

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