The High Court has refused a former Trinity College nursing student’s challenge to the Academic Appeals Committee’s decision that it lacked jurisdiction to hear her appeal over failing her final year.
In a judgment delivered on 26 August 2014, Ms Justice Iseult O’Malley held that the applicant, who had been conferred with an ordinary BA degree, had graduated from the course on which she was registered. She therefore did not qualify as a student entitled to bring an appeal before the committee under the university rules. The court refused the reliefs she sought.
The applicant had completed the first three years of a four-year nursing degree. She failed the practical component of her final year twice. She said the first failure followed bullying during a clinical placement at St James’s Hospital. The Court of First Appeal rejected her appeal in June 2010, citing concerns recorded in her competency documents and the health service provider’s view that she was unsafe and posed a risk to patient safety. The applicant sought a further opportunity to complete a placement elsewhere.
After that appeal was rejected, the applicant was eligible for an ordinary BA under the university rules. She later accepted the degree and was conferred with it in December 2010. She maintained that she had accepted it to obtain her transcripts and had not been told it would prevent her from pursuing the nursing degree at Trinity. The college disputed her account of the advice she received. The High Court said the emails and solicitor correspondence showed that she understood the implications of accepting the BA, and that advice about completing nursing elsewhere depended on acceptance by another institution.
The applicant’s appeal to the Academic Appeals Committee was scheduled for September 2012. When her graduation came to light, the committee adjourned to receive submissions on whether it had jurisdiction and whether the appeal was moot. It then decided it could not hear the appeal because she was no longer a student under the university statutes.
The judicial review challenged that decision on grounds including inadequate reasons and failure to consider legitimate expectation and estoppel. The High Court found that the central issue was jurisdiction. It held that the committee’s decision addressed that issue and that, once it concluded the applicant was not a student within the rules, it had no obligation to deal further with the other grounds. The court did not determine the underlying appeal about her failed placement; it refused the judicial review reliefs sought.