Funding · Wales
NHS Wales Bursary Scheme
NHS Wales Bursary Scheme is administered by NHS Wales Shared Services Partnership (NWSSP) Student Awards Services, coordinated by Health Education and Improvement Wales (HEIW). The figures below are the published 2026/27 rates. 3 elements carry a published figure and 3 do not, so a full total cannot be computed from published figures. 9 of the allied health professions on this site qualify.
What it is
Wales pays the full tuition fees and adds a living-costs bursary for students on commissioned healthcare courses at Welsh universities, in exchange for a binding commitment to work in NHS Wales after you qualify. The commitment is two years after a three-year course, or eighteen months after a two-year course, and walking away from it triggers a fixed repayment. You do not have to be Welsh-domiciled to take it, but you do have to study in Wales.
The elements below are separate awards under one scheme, and they are conditional in different ways. Some are flat payments made to everyone on an eligible course; some are assessed against household income; some reimburse costs you have already incurred and are worth nothing to you unless you incur them. Reading the scheme as a single headline figure is the mistake that leads people to budget for money they will never see.
A single total for this scheme cannot be computed from the published figures. Several elements — Tuition fees, Means-tested bursary and Additional allowances — are described in the scheme rules without a rate attached, or the rate is set individually. This page publishes what is stated and leaves the rest blank rather than estimating it; the administering body will give you a figure for your own circumstances.
- Nation
- Wales
- Academic year
- 2026/27
- Administered by
- NHS Wales Shared Services Partnership (NWSSP) Student Awards Services, coordinated by Health Education and Improvement Wales (HEIW)
- Routes funded
- Undergraduate degree and Pre-registration master’s
- Elements
- 6
What each element pays, and on what condition
The amount column is the figure the administering body publishes. Where it is blank, no rate is published — either the award is assessed individually or the guidance sets limits rather than a single sum.
| Element | Amount | Basis | Conditions |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tuition fees | Not published | academic year | Full tuition fees paid on a non-repayable basis, subject to the workforce commitment. Undergraduate BSc pre-registration students are eligible for a maximum of three years of funding unless mitigating circumstances are confirmed by their university. |
| Non-means-tested grant | £1,000 | academic year | Flat grant paid to all bursary students regardless of household income. |
| Means-tested bursary | Not published | academic year | Income-assessed, non-repayable bursary for living costs. Rates were not published in the sources consulted, so no amount is recorded here. |
| Extra Weeks (long-course) Allowance - living elsewhere | £84 | extra week (maximum) | Means tested and non-repayable, for courses running more than 30 weeks. From 2026/27 all extra weeks support is paid through the NHS Wales Bursary only, no longer through Student Finance Wales maintenance loans. The parental-home rate is up to £56 per extra week; a £108 London rate applies to medical and dental students only. |
| Additional allowances | Not published | academic year | Support for travel and for accommodation while on placement, plus Childcare Allowance, Disabled Student Allowance, Dependants Allowance and Parental Learning Allowance for eligible students. Amounts were not published in the sources consulted. |
| Repayment if the work-in-Wales commitment is not met | £25,500 | three-year course | Payable if you complete the course but do not work in Wales as required. The equivalent figure for a two-year course is £17,000. If you leave suitable employment early the liability tapers: £19,125 after 6 months but before 1 year, £12,750 after 1 year but before 18 months, £8,500 after 18 months but before 2 years, and nil after 2 years' service. If you are asked to leave or withdraw from the course before completing it, you are not liable to repay. |
Work out what you would get
This is arithmetic on the scheme’s own published figures, and nothing else. Elements published on the same basis — here, per academic year — are added together. Where the scheme publishes more than one rate for the same payment, only the highest is counted, because you can only receive one of them. Elements published on a different basis are listed separately below and not added, because adding a per-claim reimbursement to an annual grant would produce a number that means nothing.
A total appears only where every element in the group carries a published figure. If one does not, the components that exist are still shown and the total is left uncomputed. That is the honest position: an incomplete sum presented as a total is worse than no total at all, because you would budget against it.
Every eligible profession
- Tuition fees — no figure published
- Non-means-tested grant — £1,000
- Means-tested bursary — no figure published
- Additional allowances — no figure published
The total cannot be computed from published figures: Tuition fees, Means-tested bursary and Additional allowances have no published amount.
Applies identically to these 9 professions.
Who qualifies
The scheme funds the undergraduate degree and pre-registration master’s route s. If you are training by another route, this is not the scheme that applies to you — compare the routes for your profession before you apply.
- Dietitian — what the job is · undergraduate degree, pre-registration master’s and degree apprenticeship
- Occupational therapist — what the job is · undergraduate degree, pre-registration master’s and degree apprenticeship
- Paramedic — what the job is · undergraduate degree and degree apprenticeship
- Physiotherapist — what the job is · undergraduate degree, pre-registration master’s and degree apprenticeship
- Podiatrist — what the job is · undergraduate degree, pre-registration master’s and degree apprenticeship
- Speech and language therapist — what the job is · undergraduate degree, pre-registration master’s and degree apprenticeship
- Diagnostic radiographer — what the job is · undergraduate degree, pre-registration master’s and degree apprenticeship
- Therapeutic radiographer — what the job is · undergraduate degree, pre-registration master’s and degree apprenticeship
- Operating department practitioner — what the job is · undergraduate degree and degree apprenticeship
What does not qualify
Exclusions decide more applications than entitlements do. Read them before you commit to a course on the assumption that it is funded.
How it works with student loans
Eligible full-time Welsh-domiciled NHS Wales Bursary students also have access to the full rate of non-means-tested maintenance loan from Student Finance Wales, a change made from 2024/25 that replaced the earlier reduced-rate loan; bursary students domiciled elsewhere in the UK get a reduced-rate maintenance loan from their own funding body instead. From 2026/27, however, extra weeks support must be claimed through the means-tested, non-repayable bursary rather than as additional Student Finance Wales loan payments. Students who already hold a first degree and are taking a pre-registration programme such as PG Dip Dietetics or PG Dip Occupational Therapy cannot apply for the reduced student loan but do get all other elements of the scheme.
This is the part applicants most often get wrong, and getting it wrong is expensive: apply for the wrong student finance product and you can end up with less money, no entitlement to the scheme on this page, and a course already under way. Check which product your specific course is designated for with the university before you submit anything, because designation is set course by course rather than by the award name.
How to apply
Applications go to NHS Wales Shared Services Partnership (NWSSP) Student Awards Services, coordinated by Health Education and Improvement Wales (HEIW), not to your university, and most schemes run to a deadline set from the start of the academic year. Apply as soon as you have an unconditional place — several elements are assessed from the start of the year and cannot be backdated indefinitely.
How this compares with the rest of the UK
The same course can be funded on four different bases depending on where you study. If you are choosing between universities in different nations, this is a bigger financial difference than tuition fee headlines suggest.
The other nations
- NHS Learning Support Fund (LSF) — England · 2026/27
- Undergraduate-rate student finance for pre-registration postgraduate (MSc/PGDip) courses — England · 2026/27
- Postgraduate Master's Loan (England) — England · 2026/27
- SAAS standard student support for AHP courses (Scotland) — Scotland
- Paramedic, Nursing and Midwifery Student Bursary (PNMSB) — Scotland · 2025/26
- Department of Health (NI) healthcare bursary for AHP students — Northern Ireland · 2026/27
- Degree apprenticeship funding (England) — England · 2026/27
Carry on from here
- All funding schemes — Every scheme across the four nations
- Compare training routes — What each route costs and what it pays
- Every approved course — Filter by nation to see which funding regime applies
- NHS pay bands — What you earn once you are registered
- Degree apprenticeships — The salaried alternative to student funding
- Sources and licensing — Where these figures came from
Where this page’s data comes from
Figures published by NHS Wales Shared Services Partnership (NWSSP) Student Awards Services, coordinated by Health Education and Improvement Wales (HEIW) for 2026/27. Rules change every academic year — confirm with the scheme’s own guidance before you rely on any figure here.
- HCPC register summary and registrant snapshots (aggregate)Health and Care Professions Council · No open licence stated; HCPC copyright · checked 3 September 2026
- heiw.nhs.walesCited page
- nwssp.nhs.walesCited page
- gov.walesCited page