The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) in Wales has described proposals by Cardiff University to scrap its nursing courses as “alarming”, and said doing so would harm the future of the profession in Wales.
In a formal written response to Cardiff’s plans, the union and professional body laid out the far-reaching potential impact closing the courses would have and suggested alternative solutions.
“This proposal is profoundly alarming”
Helen Whyley
Cardiff’s proposals, announced in January, would see a reduction in its workforce of 400 full-time equivalent (FTE) academic staff across various departments and the closure of its nursing school.
The university has been consulting on the plans, and RCN Wales has now published its response to that consultation.
In it, RCN Wales warned that axing nursing courses would have “far-reaching implications for patients and the public”, and pointed to high nursing vacancy rates in Wales.
It acknowledged the “challenge” Cardiff, and other UK universities, faces in attracting students into healthcare courses, but said: “Cardiff University has a civic duty to consider its role in developing and delivering the future nursing workforce both locally and nationally for Wales.
“The very idea of discontinuing nurse education is out of line with Cardiff University’s own strategy, launched in 2024, which is to ‘act as an anchor institution in our city-region, delivering cultural, social, economic and environmental benefit for Cardiff’.”
The union was also concerned about the lack of detail in equality impact assessments conducted ahead of the announcement, given the predominantly female nursing profession.
As well as concern about pre-registration courses, RCN Wales said any loss of postgraduate nursing education was a “matter of great concern” at a time when Wales needed to grow its consultant and advanced nurse workforce.
Further, the union said the proposals would undermine the “significant contribution” nurse academics at Cardiff have made over the years, and that it “devalues nursing at a time when workforce development is most crucial”.
RCN Wales director Helen Whyley (centre) with Cardiff University nursing students
RCN Wales executive director Helen Whyley said the proposal was “profoundly alarming”.
She added: “Either Cardiff University’s leadership is unaware of its proud legacy in nurse education and that its continued investment is crucial for the future of health care in Wales, or it considers this may be a price worth paying.”
Ms Whyley urged the university to abandon the proposals and said her union was “committed” to working with the university to “secure the future of nurse education in Wales”.
The union’s written response concluded with a series of recommendations for the university.
These were that Cardiff should:
Consider “alternative proposals” put forward by RCN members and work with the professional body to implement them;
Protect university jobs “at all costs” and ensure there are no compulsory redundancies;
“Safeguard” nursing research at the university;
Engage with the Welsh Government in relation to the university’s civil responsibility;
Communicate with Health Education and Improvement Wales to “enable nurse education to continue”;
Analyse the “risks” to interprofessional education and research outside of nursing at Cardiff.
A Cardiff spokesperson confirmed the university had received RCN Wales’ formal response to the consultation.
They said: “We value the views and opinions of key stakeholders, like the RCN. Their views and the views of their members will be considered as part of the formal and ongoing consultation process.
“As we’ve said previously, it’s important to stress that these are proposals and there is still a great deal of detail to work through before any final decisions are made.
“In the short term there will be no immediate impact on nursing students or their ability to complete their studies. We are committed to delivering nursing degree programmes to the students starting in 2025.”
The spokesperson added that the university was “acutely aware” of its role in delivering the next generation of healthcare professionals, and said it was “committed” to working with the RCN and others on the proposals.
More on the Cardiff situation
