To think it's unfair that students on NHS degrees get help with uni fee's

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When students on teaching and social work courses (equally needed and valued public service employees) don't.

It just doesn't seem to make any sense to me.

Don't forget that most people who become teachers start off just doing a degree in whatever subject, many don't decide to become teachers till later and then do a PGCE, so they couldn't get their degree fees funded.

When I did my masters in social work a few years ago my fees were paid for me and I also got a £200 book allowance per year. Not sure what the current situation is.

Most students can juggle part time working with their studies.
Midwifery students do not have the time to do extra paid work as they have to juggle placements (including long shifts and night shifts) with their studies. Our local uni is very direct with potential midwifery students, warning them that working is not compatible with a midwifery degree.
I think they deserve all the help they can get

Avonmore, I am frontline NHS, DH is a teacher.

2 of my ex-students last year, left the profession without ever working in the NHS, just got their 'free' degree's and buggered off into industry.

MissDuke I wouldn't consider my DH's hours "lovely", I work long shifts but when he gets home he is often marking until 11pm.

The NHS is hard, horrendous over Christmas but teaching and social work are bloody hard as well and I think that as public services they deserve to have their tuition costs met as well.

The SW bursary is pretty poor at BA level but bloody awful at MA level.

There are only a limited number of bursaries available and they are split between the universities. The universities can then decide which students they choose to receive the full bursary.

All students will receive a small nominal amount of bursary but were talking a few hundred pounds.

The money paid for tuition fees is only part payment, I am topping up nearly £2000 per year for my course and I was one of the lucky ones to get nominated for the full bursary by my uni (the £2000 top up reduces my bursary by nearly a third).

Taking on a job isn't really possible as you are required to be in placement full time and then complete the academic work outside of that. I'm surprised I ever get to see the children as it is, I think I would have a break down if I had to get another job on top of everything!

Also medical students on an NHS bursary get some form of maternity pay if needed whilst social work students get nothing!! I have no idea how they get away with that one and it pissed me off immensely.

avonmore, I've worked in the public sector for years and it never fails to horrify me how governments (of all leanings, unfortunately) use public services as a pawn to score points off each other, win votes and then make excuses once they're in. Predictable, despicable, depressing.

Rather a large proportion of medical students take the burseries and grants, and the subsidised training and then go into private practise or emigrate abroad, so we the taxpayer gets no benefit from it.

When I was at med school I was shocked at how much the student nurses worked, long shifts, night shifts... And they seemed to have responsibility too. They definitely deserved every penny. Us med students.... Not so much, but you could argue that it is a longer degree and without support, poorer students would not be able to study medicine.

Are there grants for med students? We had help with tuition fees in one or two years but I wasn't aware of anyone with a grant.

Yabvu.

I don't have time to pee, eat or drink at work, I am shouted at, I end up covered in various bodily fluids, I often end up in tears at work through exhaustion , and from being exposed to profound human suffering most people couldn't even imagine.

I NEVER get home on time , never get a break - & you think with all that on top nurses should be left struggling with student debt?

some teacher training students are entitled to £20,000 tax free bursary and most get at least £9000 and they are all entitled to a student loan so its not all bad for them

I suppose the NHS pays in for the NHS professionals to draw down bursaries etc, and there isn't the same central body willing to cough up for teachers & SW?

JacquelineHyde I don't think the maternity pay can be true, I've seen two posts from pregnant medical students on MN in the last few days, both of whom receiving no money at all.

My niece gets a nursing bursary. Now she is on placement, has one day in uni and all the course work to do, she has no time to get a job to support herself.

We don't pay uni fees in Scotland.

Social work students do. Well some do. This government in their wisdom has decided to restrict bursaries but I trained in 2012 and I netted around £23000 in bursaries.

I think the NHS bursaries and tuition fee waivers should be more generous.

I gave birth in April last year. I'd just finished my second year of a vocational creative degree, with 5 months off until I had to return. Two of the midwives who helped me during labour and delivery were still student midwives at the same uni as me, working through the night in an often high stress situation, with no summer holidays in sight.

It made me appreciate exactly why they receive that funding, and how they deserve more

Surely the OP is arguing that teachers and social workers should get bursaries as nurses do? Not that nobody should get them?

Medical students don't get any sort of bursary. We got our tuition fees paid in the fifth year, but that was all. I have never heard of med students getting maternity pay above the sort available to any other student either.

I think it's a good thing. Salaries are much lower than you could generally get for say being a lawyer or accountant in the private sector.

But I also think that tuition fees should be free across the board for first degrees, since the country needs educated people, and it's not about "you're going to earn lots of money" (which isn't necessarily true if for example you are a legal aid lawyer), it's about " we need lawyers, doctors, engineers, nurses, people to run companies" etc. Basically you need an educated workforce for a decent economy.

I think it's completely right that students in the NHS get help with their tuition fees. The country needs them, so I have no problem with the country paying for it.

The problem is that people can take their free or heavily subsidised tuition and then use it elsewhere without giving anything back to the state that paid for them.

The financial assistance should remain, but there should be an obligation to work within the NHS for at least 5 years. If they don't, then the fees should be repayable. After that, maybe for the next five years, any repayment due could go down for each year a person stays within the NHS.

Whether yabu or not- I simply wouldn't be about to complete my degree if I hadn't had my fees paid. Half of my cohort would probably be the same so that would be 30 less nurses just from where I am.
I fully intend to work in the nhs if they'll have me when I qualify. I owe the nhs.
Maybe it is unfair but how many less nurses would there be if the fees weren't paid. (The ones that would be idiotic enough to apply to nursing because they don't have to pay fees will soon drop out when they realise how hard it is mentally and physically).

I fully agree about being an obligation to work in the nhs for 5 years or paying back fees.

An awful lot of misinformation on this thread.

Medical students are entitler to NHS bursary from year 5 onwards. This is however means tested and only available to home students. The NHS bursary however is less generous than regular student funding, and even with the fees paid, I was worse off with an NHS bursary.

disappointed it is only possible to do private practice at consultant level, which requires many years training in the NHS. The vast majority work in the NHS after graduation. In fact I don't know anyone in my large year at medical school who went abroad. This includes those who paid overseas fees.

Finally, yes NHS bursary will continue to be paid during maternity leave, but this is only because it was ruled discriminatory for it not to be.

There's a multitude of reasons why but I think the most important is that it is incredibly hard for student nurses etc to get jobs to support themselves because of the eratic schedule, which can change week by week. If there wasn't a bursary a vast percentage wouldn't be able to afford to go. They also do 50% of their time in hospitals, and from what I've seen of the SN's at my work they deserve the bursary - if not more.