Nursing education: two London universities merge
Two universities in London that train health professionals have merged to create what they described as a “health powerhouse” for education and research.
Nursing and midwifery are among the fields that will be taught at the new City St George’s, University of London alongside a range of other health specialties.
“We will be the best place in the UK to receive an inter-professional education in health and medicine”
Anthony Finkelstein
The merger involves City, University of London and St George’s, University of London and brings together their separate health departments, making the new univerisity one of the biggest in London.
Among the health professionals that City educates are nurses, midwives, speech and language therapists, optometrists, counsellors, radiographers and psychologists.
Meanwhile, St George’s trains doctors, paramedics, physician associates, biomedical scientists, radiotherapists, radiographers, physiotherapists and occupational therapists.
A spokesperson for the newly merged university said: “One of very few institutions offering this breadth of expertise, the combined institution will constitute a ‘health powerhouse’ for students, researchers and the NHS.”
Professor Sir Anthony Finkelstein, president of City St George’s, said the new university would play a key role in addressing London’s health workforce needs.
He also claimed: “We will be the best place in the UK to be a clinical researcher and educator and to receive an inter-professional education in health and medicine.”
It comes as applications to study nursing nationally are declining year on year.
While the universities have legally merged as of today (1 August), Sir Anthony said full integration would “take some time”.
The plan is to launch a properly integrated school of health and medical sciences in 2025.
The reason given by the universities for the merger was to “increase the scale, impact and resilience of the two institutions”.
The merger was welcomed by Dr Diana Beech, chief executive of London Higher, a representative body for universities and higher education colleges across London.
Dr Beech said City St George’s would be “uniquely positioned to address the capital’s main societal issues, especially critical healthcare challenges”.
