The national benchmark price for pre-registration training for both degree and diploma nursing students in the financial year 2008-09 was £7,273 outside London, and the average benchmark price for London was £7,746.
The national benchmark price for pre-registration training for both degree and diploma midwifery students in the financial year 2008-09 was £8,363 outside London, and the average benchmark price for London was £8,907.
There is no current benchmark cost for a health visitor as these are post-registration courses and the benchmark prices only apply to pre-registration courses.
The average cost of tuition, bursary, salary support and other training costs for a doctor, nurse and midwife between entry onto a degree or diploma course and full registration are shown in the following table. Information for health visitors is not held centrally.
Course Level of qualification NHS bursary Tuition fees1 Salary support2 Other training costs3 Medicine Degree 1,865 60,283 30,000 135,000 Nursing Degree 12,309 22,530 — — Nursing Diploma 19,467 22,530 44,325 — Midwifery Degree 15,555 25,905 — — Midwifery Diploma 21,492 25,905 44,325 — 1 For students studying medicine, for whom there is currently no commissioning strategic health authority, a students liability of £1,255 (standard rate) is met by the NHS Student Bursary Unit. All costs have been based on a five-year course and include the university tuition costs met by the Higher Funding Council for England. 2 Salary support for nurses and midwives is an alternative to a bursary and applies only to seconded trainees from trusts. 3 For doctors in training the other training costs relate to payments of Service Increment for Teaching paid to the trusts to support infrastructure costs and the costs of the doctors training the students. Costs of student loans provided by the Department for Innovation Universities and Skills have been excluded. Sources: NHS Student Bursaries Unit database 2007-08, Multi Professional Education and Training Budget 2007-08 and 2008-09, Higher Education Funding Council for England 2007-08