Boosting bursaries by £5,000 leads to 15 per cent more teachers staying in the profession beyond five years, according to the National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER).
It also leads to more teachers working in schools that struggle the most to fill vacancies, such as those in disadvantaged communities, NFER researchers say.
This makes bursaries an effective “policy lever” to address the teacher supply problem where it is the greatest, their report concludes.
In 2024-25, the following teacher training bursaries will be available, the Department for Education announced last month:
- £28,000 in chemistry, computing, mathematics and physics.
- £25,000 in biology, design and technology, geography and languages, including ancient languages.
- £10,000 in art and design, English, music and RE.
The NFER used data from initial teacher training (ITT) profiles and the School Workforce Census to estimate the impact of bursaries on longer-term teacher outcomes.
A £10,000 increase in a subject bursary was associated with an 18 per cent increase in the number of trainees in that subject, though this varied depending on the cohort.
A £10,000 bursary increase raised entry rates into teaching by 1.6 percentage points above the baseline rate. It also had a small increase on the proportion of trainees coming from Asian and black backgrounds.
Teacher recruitment: the impact of bursaries
Researchers recommend to the government that improving or introducing bursaries for subjects where there is a small or no existing bursary would be more cost effective than improving a bursary that is already at a high level.
They add that high bursaries should be maintained for maths, physics and chemistry, and that these should be raised over time with the level of the starting teacher salary.
However, teaching unions warn that bursaries are not enough on their own to tackle longstanding problems in teacher recruitment and retention.
Ian Hartwright, head of policy at the NAHT school leaders’ union, said: “The truth is that bursaries have failed to move the dial on teacher and leadership recruitment and retention over the past decade.
“Instead of sticking-plaster solutions, NAHT urges government to create a compelling and sustainable career proposition that will encourage high-quality graduates to commit to a decades-long career in teaching.
“Bursaries tackle only the symptoms of the crisis, NAHT looks to government to tackle the causes.”
Daniel Kebede, general secretary of the NEU teaching union, said bursaries are not “the most sustainable or effective way to attract sufficient candidates, with the right qualifications, to the profession”.
He added: “It is obvious that the teacher pay and conditions package needs to be urgently improved if we are to repair the damage to our education service caused by teacher shortages.”
The government failed to meet its ITT targets last year, and teachers are now leaving the profession at the highest rate in four years.
Geoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said bursaries “can only ever be a partial answer to teacher shortages”.
The government “cannot afford to bank on bursaries and other targeted payments to patch up a broken system” and “must address the underlying problem of inadequate teacher pay and excessive systemic workload”, he added.
A DfE spokesperson responded: “We welcome the findings from the National Foundation for Educational Research that teacher training bursaries are having a positive impact on the recruitment of new teachers.”
