By Peter Hans
President, UNC System
RALEIGH (October 2, 2025) – North Carolina needs more nurses, and the state’s public universities are stepping up to make it happen.
Earlier this week, I visited Fayetteville State University to celebrate a $2 million gift from Cape Fear Valley Health and to highlight the tens of millions that state policymakers have committed to expand access to nursing programs across the state.
Demand for nursing degrees is strong. Students have clearly gotten the message that skilled nurses earn a good living, have a stable and meaningful career path, and are among the most trusted professionals in our society.
The challenge is getting more of those students through the rigorous education and licensure requirements to become a nurse. A nursing degree not only has high academic standards, but also involves clinical experience so that students get real-world exposure and training before entering the field.
That makes it difficult to rapidly grow nursing programs, even when demand is strong from both students and employers. It takes highly skilled faculty to deliver quality instruction, and those professors can often make higher salaries as practicing nurses. It also requires medical providers who are willing to invest time mentoring trainee nurses on their way to becoming experienced professionals.
Fixing those bottlenecks in nursing education is critical for every North Carolinian. The Cecil G. Sheps Center at UNC Chapel Hill estimates that our state will face a shortage of nearly 12,500 registered nurses by 2033, with regional hospitals like Cape Fear Valley coping with some of the biggest challenges.
The UNC System has been helping to tackle that looming shortfall by deploying $29 million in legislative funds through a competitive grant program, allowing nursing schools across the system to test new ideas for expanding the pipeline into health careers.
Some of them have hired tutors and academic coaches; some of them have created new aid and scholarship programs to help students stay focused on their degree; some of them have invested in high-tech training labs that make it easier to get hands-on experience outside of a clinical setting.
The vision is for every nursing program across the state to successfully achieve their stated goals on how they plan to expand their class size and get more students to graduation on time.
The grant-making approach also allows the UNC System to identify and scale promising interventions that can improve nursing education for everyone.
At Fayetteville State, for example, new state funds awarded through the UNC System have helped hire new faculty and academic support staff, bought advanced simulation equipment for the nursing lab, and paid for students to take prep classes for the state licensing exam. All of that is designed to ensure that FSU nursing students graduate on time and successfully transition to nursing careers.
National funders have taken notice of the UNC model. Over the last few years, the Bedford Falls Foundation, which is devoted to opening the nursing field to more students, has granted more than $12 million to UNC System nursing schools.
The Bedford Falls team highlighted the coordinated, statewide approach that UNC is taking, and the fact that our low tuition and strong student aid mean that students from all backgrounds can pursue a nursing career with minimal financial burden.
At Fayetteville State, which is part of the NC Promise program, tuition for in-state undergraduates is just $1,000 per year.
Keeping our hospitals and health clinics staffed with capable, well-trained nurses is exactly the kind of critical need that our public universities are meant to address. It was wonderful to see so much enthusiasm for this work at Fayetteville State, and so much support from our state policymakers and national partners.
All of us will rely on the skill and care of a nurse at some point in our lives, which means we’re all invested in the quality of education at our nursing schools.
Peter Hans is the President of the 17-campus University of North Carolina System.
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