The University of Worcester has been awarded £2,493,703 from the Office for Students (OfS) to further enhance its very high-quality education of tomorrow’s nurses, doctors, physiotherapists, paramedics, occupational therapists, physician assistants, midwives and other health professionals.
The grant, from the OfS’ Strategic Priorities Capital Grant Fund, was won in the face of intense competition from universities and colleges throughout England and is the third time in a row that the University of Worcester has had maximum success in this funding competition – making it just one of a handful of universities to succeed three times in three. The £10.5m secured across the three rounds is already benefitting the nearly 3,000 students studying across the University’s range of professional healthcare degrees.
Vice Chancellor and Chief Executive, Professor David Green CBE DL, said: “We are very pleased to have once again been awarded the maximum grant from the OfS. This is a most welcome practical endorsement of the quality, innovative nature and practical impact of our work here in educating the medical and health professionals that the people of our region so badly need.
“This recognition reflects the University’s long and successful history of educating highly employable graduates. We are the top-ranking university in the UK for graduate employment (LEO 2017-2025) and were once again shortlisted for University of the Year this year – making us the only university in the UK to be shortlisted four times since 2015 – a testament to the transformative impact of our education, the dedication of our staff and students and the beneficial impact of our graduates in society.”
Winning this highly competitive grant will enable the University to create additional simulation facilities for these students, including a specialist midwifery simulation suite, the purchase of a decommissioned ambulance for training paramedics, together with creating new high-tech digitally enabled simulation rooms to enable teams of medical and health professional students to simulate interprofessional working in a very wide variety of health care situations from Accident and Emergency to operating theatres.
The grant will provide vital equipment including the latest mobile diagnostic tools and two more highly sophisticated Anatomage tables, which use digital scans of real people who donated their bodies for science, and which facilitate the very high-level learning of anatomy which is so vital for successful health care from surgery through to physiotherapy, midwifery and more. There is also the simulation of the anatomy of a birth.
By increasing its simulation capacity, the University will be able to educate even more health professionals for the future, including through the introduction of a new undergraduate degree for Operating Department Practitioners which will welcome its first students from September 2026.
Professor Sally Moyle, Deputy Vice Chancellor Academic, added: “This money will pay for new facilities to help ensure that students graduating from the University of Worcester are exceptionally well-prepared for the modern, community-based healthcare delivery in line with NHS strategy and regional workforce priorities.
“It will allow us to develop our high quality interprofessional healthcare education, using modern digital technology to produce outstanding, forward-thinking clinical professionals.
“By increasing and further improving our already outstanding facilities, we will be able to educate even more students alongside our NHS partners, who will go on to play vital roles in the communities we are proud to serve.”
Simon Trickett, Chief Executive of NHS Herefordshire and Worcestershire, said: “This is extremely positive news for our local health and care system. The University of Worcester already plays a vital role in developing the highly skilled and compassionate health professionals our communities rely on, and this latest funding award will further strengthen that pipeline.”
The University, which is the key centre for health and medical education for Herefordshire, Worcestershire and much of the Black Country and Gloucestershire, previously received funding towards the development of its Severn Campus for Health and Wellbeing, including the transformation of the former Worcester News building and print factory into an outstanding new facility to educate medical and healthcare professionals, as well as the purchase of specialist health and science equipment for teaching.
Minister for Skills Baroness Jacqui Smith visited the University’s new health facilities at the end of September. After her visit, Minister Smith, who is responsible for universities and studied for her PGCE at the University of Worcester, said: “It has been really great to come back here, having had such happy memories of studying here. To see the medical school, and the opportunities there are here for medical students to learn alongside nurses and paramedics, it was great.”
She added: “There’s obviously a very strong emphasis on students getting the opportunity to benefit from placements and links to employers here. That’s what makes the courses lead to really good employment prospects, which I know is a big strength of the University.”
For information on courses at University of Worcester visit www.worcester.ac.uk or for application enquiries telephone 01905 855111 or email [email protected]