Say 'ahh': taking the temperature of health education

A Picture of Health and Education, published on 5 July by Universities UK, analyses the role of universities in creating the healthcare workforce, as well as changes to funding and commissioning structures in healthcare education.

According to the report, just 20 per cent of those studying health subjects are in medical or dental disciplines.

Those taking non-medical health subjects are more likely than the average student to be over 30, from the UK and studying in their home region, it says.

The report also shows that, together, the UK departments of health spend about £5.5 billion a year on education, with 18 per cent of this ending up in university education (less than 1 per cent of the total NHS budget in England).

According to the report, while the NHS' real-terms spending has doubled since 1994, spending on health education resources has not grown at the same rate. The proportion of English NHS spending on education fell from 5 per cent in 2007-08 to 4.5 per cent in 2012-13.