Radiography education funding – Crisis or opportunity?

The academic radiography workforce: Age profile, succession planning and academic development

“…England are funded from the 2017-18 intake, alongside removal of the imposed caps on commissioned numbers, resulting in a potential increase in the numbers entering healthcare courses 2,3 . There is concern that some elements of the student population may be deterred .…”

“…An increasing number of "frozen posts" were reported, with almost a quarter of HEIs prevented from recruiting to posts when academics left. This is a concerning pattern in a small workforce given the time it takes to develop new academic radiographers, but may be due to current unprecedented 13 uncertainties within radiography education as a result of the comprehensive spending review 2,3 . Succession planning was reported for the majority of leadership roles within academic radiography, but not for lecturer roles.…”

Trailblazers: Stakeholder motivations for developing degree apprenticeships for the radiography profession

“…This allowed both original and recurring themes to emerge and had been successfully used in apprenticeship research previously. 6 A secondary review of emerging themes was then undertaken (2nd author) and any discrepancies reviewed.…”

“…Larger employers (such as the National Health Service) pay more into the Levy and monies can only be drawn back from the Levy to pay for apprenticeship training. Additionally, the changes in funding streams for training 5,6 as a result of the Department of Health bursary reforms means that health profession students training fees are no longer Government funded, making the prospect of being paid to train (through apprenticeship routes) more attractive. However, experience in other subject areas (for example, management, digital and engineering) has demonstrated that apprenticeships are not without their challenges.…”

Challenges in recruitment and retention: Securing the therapeutic radiography workforce of the future

“…A 2016 editorial in this journal surmised that these education funding changes could be seen as both a 'crisis and an opportunity'. 8 The full extent of the impact of the change in the bursary scheme is still unclear, but official statistics show that applications are indeed reducing 9 and many admissions teams are reporting difficulties in recruitment. 7 In 2018, several programmes confirmed they had not recruited to target, and most had needed to go into 'clearing' to recruit students close to the start date of the course.…”