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The latest announcements, press releases and media coverage from University Alliance.

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  1. ‘Delivering the Healthcare Workforce of the Future’: University Alliance publishes proposals to help tackle the NHS workforce crisis

    January 31, 2023

    University Alliance, an association of universities which collectively trains 30% of nurses in England, has today (31 January) published a briefing on ‘Delivering the Healthcare Workforce of the Future’. It comes at a time when the NHS is facing a workforce crisis, with over 130,000 vacancies in England and over 46,000 vacant nursing posts – a record high. A key challenge is the need to train more nurses more quickly to the same very high standar…

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    NHS Workforce

  2. University groups call for cross-government health education taskforce

    February 19, 2024

    With the latest UCAS data showing applications are down for medicine, nursing and midwifery courses, leaders from the higher education sector are calling for a new taskforce to effectively deliver NHS England’s Long-Term Workforce Plan. In a jointly-written letter sent to the Secretaries of State for Education and Health, a coalition of university mission groups and educators have called on the government to convene a new ministerial taskforce to…

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  3. University Alliance responds to the latest UCAS application data

    February 15, 2024

    Vanessa Wilson, CEO of University Alliance, has commented in response to the latest UCAS application data, released today (15 January): On the decline of applications for public sector workforce courses, Vanessa Wilson, CEO of University Alliance, said: “The continued decline in applications for subjects like teaching, nursing and midwifery spell trouble for the future of our public sector. A concerted effort to reverse these trends will be requi…

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  4. Letter to the Times: “Nurses’ research time needs to be protected too”

    February 8, 2024

    In a letter to the The Times, University Alliance CEO Vanessa Wilson responds to the Times’ Health Commission. ‘Sir, The ten recommendations of The Times Health Commission are timely, necessary and sensible. Your ninth point makes the case for NHS staff to take part in research, proposing that 20 per cent of hospital consultants and other senior clinicians have 20 per cent of their time protected for research. The same should apply to nursing res…

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  5. Universities, the NHS, and health workforce transformation

    February 5, 2024

    This article was originally published in Wonkhe. Working alongside the NHS requires universities to constantly be adapting. The relationship between universities and the health and social care sector can be described as evolutionary. For decades, nurses were trained directly on wards, with schools of nursing traditionally hosted by individual hospitals. Training began to move towards higher education in the mid-1990s, but it took until 2009 for a…

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  6. ‘Let’s Get Technical’: University Alliance publishes five policy asks for the next Government

    September 29, 2023

    University Alliance, an association of the UK’s leading professional and technical universities, has today (Friday 29 September) published ‘Let’s Get Technical: How to harness the power of professional and technical universities to deliver for the UK’. Launched to coincide with party conference season, ‘Let’s Get Technical’ proposes five long-term goals for the next UK government, alongside a set of policy suggestions to help realise each goal. T…

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    Film students photographed - the Let's Get Technical campaign image

  7. University Alliance responds to the publication of the NHS Long-Term Workforce Plan

    June 30, 2023

    In response to the publication of NHS England’s Long-Term Workforce Plan, the CEO of University Alliance Vanessa Wilson said: “We are pleased and relieved that this plan has now been published. This will allow universities to commit to more long-term planning and expand their teaching offer. There are challenges that must be overcome to really scale up healthcare education, but we believe our universities have the solutions. We want to work as cl…

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  8. University Alliance responds to the Hewitt Review

    April 4, 2023

    In response to the Hewitt Review, our Head of Policy Susanna Kalitowski said: “We welcome Patricia Hewitt’s review of integrated care systems. In response, the government should produce a strategy for the social care workforce, complementary to the NHS workforce plan, as soon as possible. The review emphasises the value of collaboration in planning the future healthcare workforce. University Alliance has called for universities and colleges to be…

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    Nursing simulation at the University of Derby

  9. University Alliance responds to the NMC’s announcement on simulated learning in nursing training

    January 25, 2023

    Responding to the Nursing and Midwifery Council’s announcement to permanently allow up to 600 hours of clinical placements to take place in simulated settings during nursing training, University Alliance CEO Vanessa Wilson said: “This announcement by the Nursing and Midwifery Council is both timely and welcome. It recognises how universities are innovating by using simulated facilities and techniques to deliver high-quality nursing training. Thro…

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    Using Virtual Reality headsets at Middlesex University

  10. University leaders respond to Shadow Chancellor’s pledge to grow number of nurses

    September 26, 2022

    University Alliance has responded to Shadow Chancellor Rachel Reeves’ announcement today regarding university places for medical and nursing students. Vanessa Wilson, CEO of the Alliance, said: “As the group of universities which collectively train the largest number of nurses in the UK, we are delighted that the Shadow Chancellor has recognised the need to significantly grow the number of nurses we train. The issue of how to effectively train mo…

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    Student nurses