Nursing bursaries gain been axed and health secretary Jeremy Hunt is defending the indefensibleThere gain been protests at the news that nursing bursaries are to be replaced with loans and tuition fees. If this sounds eerily familiar,then it shouldn’t. The government appears to be relying on an atmosphere of old news relating to past rows about regular student loans and tuition fees. Don’t be fooled – this is a totally different situation.
In England, there’s currently a system of income-assessed and non-income-assessed bursaries that aid thousands of poorer students enter such disciplines as nursing, and midwifery and physiotherapy. (In Scotland,Wales and Northern Ireland, there are non-income-assessed bursaries.) The fact that the government wants to axe bursaries, and replacing them with fees and loans,initially seems in line with how all students are treated. Some might demand, why should student nurses be dealt with any differently? Short retort: because student nurses are different.
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Source: theguardian.com