Returning to education? How a nursing or midwifery degree at Edinburgh Napier University can suit you

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If you’re thinking of retraining or looking for a job with purpose, nursing and midwifery offers the chance to really make a difference.

And it can open doors in a number of different areas – as well as all over the world.

If you are returning to education, you’ll be in good company at Edinburgh Napier University: half of students are over 21, and 25% are over 30 on its nursing and midwifery courses.

Rated among the top ten UK modern universities for nursing in The Times/Sunday Times Good University Guide 2025, it's one of the largest providers of nursing and midwifery education in Scotland – and the only university to offer all four specialisms as well as midwifery.

You can choose from Adult, Child Health, Learning Disabilities or Mental Health Nursing, as well as Midwifery. Plus, as well as help paying your tuition fees, Scottish residents may get financial support to help you study too.

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Read on to find out more, or visit the website here to learn more about the courses available.

A career that takes you places

A nursing qualification can stand you in good stead if you want to live abroad (adult nursing is recognised all over the world), but there are many more career paths to consider, according to Emma Trotter, Academic Lead for Practice Learning (Nursing) at the University’s School of Health and Social Care.

“The world is always going to need nurses, and it's a career that can take you all over the world or wherever you want to go," she says.

"A lot of nurses come into it originally thinking it's working with the NHS, and some 80 to 90% of people with nursing degrees do work in the NHS. But there are so many other things that you could do as well: you could work abroad, or you could work for the third sector including charities complementing the work of the NHS or private healthcare systems. There are opportunities to work with the armed forces or within private healthcare, like Aspire or Nuffield Health, as well as private, older adult care roles in care homes. Additionally, there are roles in research, education and management within healthcare organisations.

"Most importantly, particularly if you're coming to this as a change of career, there are lot of opportunities within that to become leaders."

There are vital roles leading a health and social care team, for example, or following a path into community nursing or public health and preventative care. Changes in the NHS also mean that there is more scope within advanced nurse practitioner roles, she adds.

"The degree is your foundation but the potential with the next steps are huge – it's continual lifelong learning. An undergraduate degree is just the first step towards endless opportunities to work in so many different places."

“Mature students don’t need to have experience in nursing or science; your life experience can transfer into learning how to deliver really good nursing care.”

Get help to get back into studying

To help develop the healthcare workforce and encourage students to enter these critical professions, applicants for a pre-registration nursing or midwifery courses who have been a Scottish resident for at least three years might be eligible not only to have your annual academic fees paid by the Student Awards Agency Scotland (SAAS), but you could also receive a bursary of up to £10,000 a year.

This isn't a loan – it's a payment to you to cover your living and travel costs. To see if you might be eligible, visit here.

Heather, who completed her child nursing studies last year, appreciated the way that her studies worked well alongside being a parent. "I'm really happy with how uni works around my childcare; the flexibility that I had was great for me around working and childcare,” she says.

"As a child, my sister was always in hospital and she hadn't been well and it was the nurses that looked after her that inspired me. "I work alongside some of them now and I still think they're every be bit as amazing now as I did back then."

In addition there is plenty of support for mature students at Edinburgh Napier University. They offer a wide range of student support to help you fulfil your potential, keep healthy and make the most of your time there: when you begin your studies, you will be given a personal development tutor who will work with you throughout the course.

Plus there's that vital peer support – something that Ally, who studied learning disabilities nursing and graduated last year, says made his three years at the university a really enjoyable experience. "What I love most about the course is the people, my peers; I love going out on placement and the lecturers are fantastic. The fact that it's small almost feels like family."

How Emma-Louise found her dream career

26-year-old Emma-Louise Laing is nearing the end of her child health nursing qualification, and she says the bursary she received made it possible to consider a career in nursing after time out for several knee surgeries meant she couldn’t finish her master’s in Criminology.

“I was thinking ‘Can I go back to university? Is it financially possible? How can I make myself more prepared for the future?’ I expected to partly or fully fund my course which was going to be a tipping point for me. If it wasn’t for the bursary and the SAAS funding, I wouldn’t have gone back and done my nursing.”

Her £10,000 bursary works out at about £700 a month (the course runs for the full year) which means “important bills” are covered and she only needs to work part-time. And she had a tight-knit group of friends on the course who are all mature students – something that had been a concern before she started.

“I was worried that I would be with 17- and 18-year-olds who were going to the university for the first time. It’s just a different thing then: the social life wasn’t appealing for me, and I thought that would make me an outcast but it didn’t.

“I knew from a young age I wanted to do nursing but I am glad I didn’t do it because I was very young, I needed that life experience before I went back to do it,” she adds. “I just needed to be my own self and I needed that time to figure out what I wanted and how to do it.”

Her advice for others considering a similar route? “Research what the nursing degree is and what it entails, and attend your open days or offer-holder days; those are a really good opportunity to see the settings and to meet the staff – and to see if you could see yourself there.”

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How to find out more

Sign up today for Edinburgh Napier’s online nursing webinar for mature applicants on 12 May at https://gck.fm/xrsse or use the QR code above.

Visit here to learn more about the courses available.

And head here to see if you might be eligible for funding to help pay for your studies.