IMPACT
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Backlog of UoN medicine applications after Covid A-Level ‘fiasco’
Notts PCC Caroline Henry secures £1.1 million to make streets safer for women Newly elected Notts Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) Caroline Henry has secured more than £1 million in Home Office funding to improve street safety for women in Worksop and Sutton-in-Ashfield. The funding will be targeted at new CCTV cameras, better street lighting and environmental improvement work, as well as additional policing enforcement. The Commissioner is working closely with Notts Police and local authorities to prioritise women’s safety, listening carefully to the views of locals and focus groups on their concerns. Henry welcomed the new funding and said, “I promised to speak up for Nottinghamshire - at the highest possible level - and secure every penny I can to improve the safety of our county.” She added, “This funding is proof that the Government is taking note and really values the way we solve problems here.” Nationally, the Government is allocating £25 million to PCCs across England and Wales to tackle street safety and reduce violence against women in public spaces. Earlier this year, Henry also secured £432k for safety improvements in Lenton. However, many women insist this funding doesn’t go far enough, as safety concerns on campus continue to rise. By Lauren McGaun
Since the A-level grades ‘fiasco’ back in 2020, it has been significantly more difficult to receive university offers for competitive courses such as medicine and dentistry. Due to the algorithm which downgraded 40% of Centre Assessed Grades (CAGs) by one or more grades, and then the Government’s U-turn back to awarding the original CAGs, more students met entry requirements than universities had the space or resources for. As a result, many students were forced to defer or, having now met the requirements for more prestigious courses, decided to reapply, increasing the strain on the 2021 applicant pool. Several universities, including UoN, proposed the Department of Education’s (DfE) ‘Medical and Dental School Student Incentivised Transfer Scheme’, which involved place holders being offered £10,000 in grant to defer their place at the medical school. This all comes despite the Royal College of GPs estimating that the UK needs 20% more undergraduate medical places to serve the growing population. Currently, the number of medical places offered are capped by the government due to the cost of training a doctor and limited placements. As the 2022 cohort starts the application process for universities, UoN may face the same competitive squeeze again, having to select applicants from an overcrowded field. By Anna Boyne
