Nursing students in UCG are currently embroiled in a dispute between two Government departments, health and education, over fees for an additional year of study which would allow nurses to move from diploma to degree level. The dispute has left the students involved facing full undergraduate fees and casts doubt upon the future of similar initiatives in other colleges.

The Department of Education's position is that nursing education has traditionally been funded by the Department of Health and the health authorities and that the degree year should be their responsibility. The Department of Health takes the view that the degree programme is optional and that nurses taking the course are therefore responsible for making their own arrangements for admission, attendance and the payment of fees. In the middle are the students, who face a year with full fees and without any form of maintenance support.

The 55 students, representing the full cohort of diploma graduates, are due to commence their course in 1998. They face financial penalties for attempting to advance both their own education and the profession in general. UCG students' union president Darren McCallig describes it as a "disgraceful situation", adding that nursing students will now be the only full-time undergraduate students to be denied fee funding all the way to degree level.

"We feel quite strongly that some students at least should have the opportunity for degree education," says Kathy Murphy, director of nursing studies in UCG. "I think if you look at the complexity of nursing and the situation in the UK, the United States and Australia, the realisation that healthcare is very complex and skilled has led people to understand the importance of degree education," she says.

Murphy is anxious not to devalue non-degree qualifications, but believes that the degree programme will give nurses the opportunity to work on the learning, information and critical analysis skills which can only benefit the profession. She also points out that healthcare professionals in other areas - physiotherapy, medicine etc - are all educated to at least degree level and that nurses need to be able to work as equal partners alongside them.

The intransigence of the Government departments involved was rendered grimly ironic this week when the president of An Bord Altranais, Ita Daly, stressed the importance of continuing professional education for nurses at the launch of a framework document, Continuing Professional Education for Nurses in Ireland.