Applying for a funded place on the 2026 intake

Applications will be welcome from applicants interested in studying the programme full-time over one year or part-time over two years.

Eligibility

• NHSE-funded places on the 2026 intake will be open to staff working in, or delivering services to, the NHS in England.
• Applicants will need to have an honours degree (minimum 2:1) or relevant work experience.
• ‘Non-standard’ applications from applicants who have significant relevant professional experience, and/or where the academic qualification falls below a 2:1 degree, will be considered on an individual basis, and may be admitted at the discretion of NHS England.
• Applicants cannot simultaneously be on another NHS-funded training programme while studying on the PG Cert.

The application process for funded places

• The application process for funded places for the 2026 intake will be a single application to NHSE, which will be managed by the National School of Healthcare Science.
• There will be no need to apply additionally to the University of Manchester.
• Departments who have expressed an interest – via the NHSE expression of interest process – in one of their members of staff having a place on the programme, will need their interested, nominated colleague to submit an application form to ensure that they meet minimum eligibility and threshold requirements.
• In order to score applications, each of the four supporting statements that applicants are to provide will be scored anonymously and independently by at least two members of our team of assessors. You may wish to prepare your supporting statements in advance and then paste your copy into the form. To help you to prepare you can download a file containing the four questions that will be scored.
• Applications which use AI to generate the four supporting statements, which require genuine, personal and concrete details, are unlikely to be successful. Where we can detect the use of AI to generate these statements, those applications will be rejected.