Staffordshire University is backing a series of proposals which calls on government to protect and support key public service provision at Universities.
The direct contributions made by nursing and paramedic students to support the NHS through COVID-19 pandemic has thrown a spotlight on vital key workers – including teachers and social workers – and their vital roles in the nation’s recovery.
Universites UK and MillionPlus, the Association for Modern Universities are now calling on government to offer maintenance grants of up to £10,000 for all students training to take on key worker roles, to remove recruitment caps and to provide fee-loan forgiveness for those graduates working in the professions for a period of five years.
The proposals also ask for funding to be increased for the Office for Students and a new Public Services in Higher Education Capital Fund to enable universities to invest in simulation equipment, additional staff costs and other infrastructure.
To encourage retention and development of key workers in public services, the proposals also call on government to increase general staffing budgets and back new professional development programmes that look to upskill current key workers and the new NHS volunteer reserve.
Staffordshire University Vice-Chancellor Professor Liz Barnes CBE said: “Staffordshire University, in common with others, plays a hugely important role in developing the public services workforce of the future and we are immensely proud that so many of our nursing and paramedic students have volunteered to join those on the front line.
“This pandemic has forced us to respond immediately to the pressures facing the National Health Service and for this reason we are asking government to recognise students’ contribution now and to strengthen and enhance our ability to develop our key public service workers in future.”
“As a response to this crisis, we have already been sharing our teaching materials with workers volunteering return to the NHS and to biological sciences but we think the role our universities play in professional development needs to be formalised and recognised by government with appropriate investment in staffing and infrastructure.”
The proposals, announced yesterday, explicitly build on Universities UK’s stabilisation plan submitted to the government three weeks ago, which called for investment to support university finances in the crisis and offered to work with the government to take forward “targeted support to protect and sustain courses that meet the national need for key workers”. The sector is warning that Universities will be hard hit by the crisis and without further action, training capacity may well not meet future needs.
Professor Rama Thirunamachandran, Chair of MillionPlus and a Universities UK Board member, said:
“Universities need this support to be reciprocated from the government to help meet what is certain to be increased demand for these key public servants, as we work together to rebuild Britain. The overall UUK stabilisation package is essential to this – these proposals build on that plan’s explicit call for targeted support to sustain courses essential for our future national needs. These proposals could go a long way to honouring the government’s election pledge to boost the NHS and help levelling up across the entire country, as, slowly but surely, Britain heals and a kind of normality returns.”