University receives major funding boost to launch new degree apprenticeships

The University of Portsmouth has won an award of £669,704 from the Office for Students (OfS) to launch four new degree apprenticeships in September 2025.

The new apprenticeships, launching with 18 to 30 starters on each programme, will include: 

• Registered Nurse
• Diagnostic Radiographer
• Paramedic
• Space Systems Engineer

This latest announcement follows a £272,000 OfS funding award in January 2024 to launch the following three apprenticeships in September 2024 with 15 to 30 starters on each programme including: 

• Applied Biomedical Science
• Digital Marketing
• Operating Department Practitioner

The funding from January will also be used to redesign learning materials for the existing one-year top up Manufacturing Engineer degree apprenticeship.

Mike Punt, the University’s Director of Learning at Work & Degree Apprenticeships, said: “We’re very pleased to be awarded this additional funding to expand our portfolio even further.  To win funding from wave one and wave two is exceptional and a credit to all the staff involved in putting this bid together. 

“Degree apprenticeships are growing in popularity with applicants and employers, so it’s important that we can offer a greater range of options for potential apprentices to meet demand.”

With 17 different apprenticeships in its portfolio, the University currently has over 700 live apprentices enrolled: an incredible increase from just 7 in 2016 which demonstrates the appeal of undertaking a degree apprenticeship programme.

The University is planning to launch seven new degree apprenticeships using OfS funding over the next two years.

Nationally, take up of higher apprenticeships has continued to grow – rising by 10 per cent from 38,230 in 2021/22 to 42,060 in 2022/23.

Last year, the University’s degree apprenticeship provision achieved the top rating in two of the three areas in which it was inspected when Ofsted conducted a New Provider Monitoring Visit.