Last week saw a march through Dublin involving as many as 3,000 student nurses, protesting the fact that a degree in nursing is the only one for which fees remain.

Numbers on the street, and even a threat to withdraw student nurses' labour from the wards tomorrow, are not the only weapons in the students' arsenal.

However, a long-running protest taken by students on the degree course in Galway - which involved refusal to pay fees - has, if not collapsed, then faded gracefully away. "They really had done all they could. College had been really good and given them two extensions on paying their fees, but eventually they had no choice," says the NUI Galway students' union president. Paddy Jordan.

The nurses' last best hopes are pinned on a case taken by graduates of the 1998 degree course against a number of Government departments and the Western Health Board.

The board has entered a defence in the case and, after substantial delay, the Department of Education says it should be entering one soon. Were the case to be successful, nurses' supporters hope it would be seen as a test case for others. "This should set a precedent for subsequent cases - it would certainly have a knock-on effect for future years," Jordan says. The NUI Galway union is indemnifying the nurses in a legal fight which could go all the way.

"We are more than a little concerned about the cost, but we are 100 per cent committed. That's the whole raison d'etre of the union - to support students."