Jeremy Miles MS, Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care
As part of our ongoing commitment to train the NHS workforce of the future, I am pleased to announce I am extending the current arrangements for the NHS Wales Bursary scheme and retaining the package of support for students starting in the 2025-26 academic year.
The NHS Wales Bursary has played an important role in the package of financial support we provide to healthcare students who train in Wales and subsequently commit to work in the NHS in Wales for up to two years post-qualification. This package of support covers both tuition fees and an element towards living costs.
The NHS Bursary Scheme was introduced in 2017 and has been administered by Health Education and Improvement Wales (HEIW) since it was established in October 2018. We are very proud the NHS Bursary has helped more than 15,300 healthcare students complete their academic studies and enter the NHS workforce.
Changes made in the 2024-25 academic year have enabled eligible, full-time, Welsh-domiciled students to access the full amount of maintenance support, in addition to the NHS Bursary.
A public consultation regarding the NHS Wales Bursary will be launched later this year. This will help us to understand the incentives and conditions needed to continue to attract students to study and work in Wales beyond graduation.
Through a combination of sustained investment in the provision of healthcare professional education and training, and the continued provision of financial support to encourage people to consider healthcare in Wales as a worthwhile and rewarding career, we continue to demonstrate a clear commitment to ensuring the future sustainability of the NHS workforce.