Costaatt responds to nursing students

“COSTAATT’s Executive Management Team has taken note of the issues raised by protesting nursing students at its South Campus yesterday [on Monday] and while we regret that we were not afforded the opportunity to hear these students’ concerns directly before the public protest action was launched, we have no doubt that legitimate issues have been raised which warrant further investigation and these are already under way,” Paul stated.

“Many of our nursing students are confronted by serious financial challenges on a day-to-day basis, and have come to depend heavily on the monthly stipend to meet their basic expenses. We therefore understand that these protests come from a place of real need. Unfortunately, during the period June to September 2016, the college was experiencing significant funding challenges linked to the mandatory budget cuts and its GATE reimbursements, and simply did not have sufficient funding to pay all its nursing students the monthly stipend as had obtained in previous years,” Paul stated, adding that a decision had been taken to “prioritise payments for students who had to go out to the health care facilities for their clinical experiences.” “We are resolved to address all legitimate claims for overdue stipend payments in the shortest possible time,” she added. Regarding the length of the nursing programme, Paul noted that COSTAATT was established with a “specific mandate to broaden access to tertiary education for many students who were not yet ready for college-level work but had the potential to succeed with the requisite bridging programmes and academic support.” “Some students may not be aware that the four-year completion time for the bachelor’s degree applies only to those students who come in fully prepared for college level work and who fail no courses whatsoever during their programme of study.

In fact, following a curriculum review exercise in 2013, the current administration reduced the number of non-nursing courses that the nursing students had to complete to meet their graduation requirements,” Paul stated.

“This resulted in a reduction of the duration of the nursing programme and not an extension of the programme as reported,” she stated, adding that there was abundant evidence to show that management has been working assiduously over the last five years to improve the quality of the teaching-learning environment and experience for its nursing students.

“Last year, like all other publicly funded institutions, the college had to confront very severe funding challenges...”