5.1 The SCoR Approval and Accreditation Board Annual Report for academic year 2006- 2007 outputs showed student attrition rates for diagnostic students as 31.7% and for therapeutic students 48.7%.; for academic year 2007- 2008 outputs the attrition rates had increased by 4.9% to 36.6% for diagnostic students and a decrease of 6% to 42.7% for therapeutic radiographers. These figures demonstrate significantly high attrition rates and are above the levels suffered by other allied health professions and nursing.

5.2 Radiography programmes are often under considerable pressure from both the commissioning agency and from their own HE institution to reach target numbers of students. Within radiography programmes, anecdotal evidence points to retention problems with students accepted for the last few places on a course. Financial implications and other factors should not be the driving force for accepting students onto courses who have little or no realistic chance of succeeding (Yorke and Longden 2004).