The UCAS data shows the number of domestic applicants to nursing courses across the UK by 30 June was 37,170, down from 37,530 last year, and down on 53,280 in 2021.

In response, RCN general secretary and chief executive, Professor Nicola Ranger, said: ‘Students can see that nursing is one of the most undervalued professions in the NHS. Those pursuing the career face poverty during study and sky-high debt on graduation, only to endure low pay and a lack of career progression once they start work. This cannot go on.

‘The NHS, social care and community services desperately need tens of thousands of extra nurses to plug cavernous gaps in staffing. Ministers should have prioritised boosting domestic nurse numbers, before they slashed overseas recruitment, leaving patients adrift.

‘The success of the government's reforms, and the very safety of patients, now rests on ministers delivering a workforce plan worthy of the name, with fully-funded measures to supercharge domestic recruitment.'