Heidi Alexander – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Heidi Alexander on 2016-01-18.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, pursuant to the contribution by the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Health of 11 January 2016, Official Report, column 238WH, what estimate his Department has made of the (a) number and (b) proportion of unsuccessful applicants for nursing training courses who met the entry criteria.
Ben Gummer
Information relating to the number and proportion of unsuccessful applicants is not collected by the Department.
The Universities and Colleges Admissions Service collect and publish figures on the number of applications and the number of applicants accepted by subject for full-time undergraduate courses. However this data does not provide information on how many of the unsuccessful applicants to nursing would meet the entry criteria.
The existing cap on the number of student places imposed by Health Education England means universities are limited to only offering places made available within the cap, plus a percentage above this to account for applicants offered places choosing other universities. Universities cannot accept more candidates who may meet entry criteria places as the number of places is capped.
As part of the reforms to health higher education we are abolishing this cap, enabling universities to recruit as many eligible applicants as they choose.
