Antigua College International Student Defense

Antigua College International is a for-profit institution in Miami Lakes, in Miami-Dade County, licensed by Florida’s Commission for Independent Education and participating in federal student aid. Federal disputes go to the Southern District of Florida, Miami Division. It runs both an associate degree and a baccalaureate nursing programme.

Two nursing programmes, and the baccalaureate result sits right on the line

In the Board of Nursing’s 2025 reporting year, Antigua’s associate degree programme had thirty-six first-time candidates, of whom thirty passed — 83.33% against the 76.05% associate-degree benchmark, comfortably above. The baccalaureate programme had nine first-time candidates, of whom seven passed — 77.78% against a 77.59% baccalaureate benchmark.

That second figure is worth pausing on because of how narrow it is. The programme cleared the benchmark by nineteen hundredths of a percentage point on a cohort of nine. One additional failure would have put it below, and nine candidates is small enough that a single result moves the rate by eleven points. Nobody should describe a programme in that position as either safe or failing. What it does mean is that the baccalaureate programme is close enough to the statutory line that the school has a live institutional interest in its progression and completion decisions — and a school with a live interest in how its outcomes look has a reason to resolve a dispute rather than generate a record about it.

How Florida measures a nursing programme, and why the number matters to your case

Section 464.019(5), Florida Statutes, ties a nursing programme’s standing to the passing rate of its first-time NCLEX candidates. When a programme’s annual rate falls below the national average passing rate for that credential, the Board of Nursing places it on probationary status, and the programme has to submit a remediation plan and hold that plan open until its rate recovers. For the 2025 reporting year the national benchmarks were 76.05% for associate-degree registered nursing, 77.59% for baccalaureate registered nursing, 77.17% for practical nursing, and 73.37% for diploma registered nursing programmes.

Be clear about what that figure does and does not do for a dismissed student. A low pass rate is not a defence. It does not make your dismissal unlawful and no hearing panel will treat it that way. What it does is three narrower things, and each of them is worth something. First, a programme carrying a remediation plan has documented obligations to its students — tutoring, repeat testing, faculty ratios, progression review — and if the programme dismissed you for a benchmark it was itself failing to support, that gap is discoverable and it is the kind of fact that changes how a complaint reads. Second, it makes consistency testable: if a cohort saw thirty per cent of its members fail the same exit exam, a dismissal justified as an individual academic failure invites the question of who else failed it and what happened to them. Third, it is leverage. A programme already under Board attention has a real institutional reason to resolve a student’s complaint quietly rather than let it become another entry in a file the Board is reading.

Which of the two programmes you were in changes the benchmark that applies

Because the associate and baccalaureate benchmarks are different numbers — 76.05% and 77.59% in 2025 — the comparison that matters to your case depends on which credential you were pursuing. It also changes the practical stakes. A baccalaureate dismissal usually means more completed coursework, more transferable general-education credit and a longer runway to recover elsewhere; an associate dismissal is typically closer to the clinical sequence, where credits move poorly between institutions. Establish which programme your record sits under before you build an argument around a number, and take the figure from your own programme rather than from whichever is more favourable.

What a Florida court will and will not review

Your relationship with a private licensed school is contractual, not constitutional. Fourteenth Amendment due process constrains state actors, and a private institution is not one, so the argument is built on the enrolment agreement, the catalogue and the handbook rather than on due process. Sharick v. Southeastern University of the Health Sciences, 780 So. 2d 136 (Fla. 3d DCA 2000), established both that the relationship is contractual and that damages can reach the lost value of the credential itself, not just tuition paid.

The limit on that is the part students are rarely told. In Tercier v. University of Miami, 383 So. 3d 847 (Fla. 3d DCA 2023) — a nursing dismissal — the Third District confirmed that judicial review of a private institution’s academic determination is confined to whether it was arbitrary and capricious, irrational, made in bad faith, or in violation of the constitution or a statute. Jallali v. Nova Southeastern University, 992 So. 2d 338 (Fla. 4th DCA 2008) says the same thing from the other direction: schools get wide latitude to set and apply academic requirements, and the student’s implied duty is to comply with rules the school may lawfully change.

The practical translation is short. “The faculty graded me unfairly” loses. “The school did not do what its own published policy said it would do” is the claim that survives, and it is why the first thing worth doing is reading the catalogue edition that was in force when you enrolled against what actually happened to you. Tercier carries a second lesson too: the court noted that claims not briefed on appeal were treated as abandoned. Arguments have to be raised, and preserved, at each level — including inside the school’s own process.

Which regulator actually holds the leverage here

Two different agencies matter, and students routinely write to the wrong one. Florida’s Commission for Independent Education licenses the institution under chapter 1005, Florida Statutes, and the Commission is where you complain about the school — misrepresentation in recruiting, refusal to release a transcript, a refund the school will not pay, a programme that stopped being delivered as advertised. Rule 6E-1.0032, Florida Administrative Code, requires a licensed institution to maintain and follow a published grievance procedure, and the Commission expects to see that you used it before it will act, so the internal appeal is not a formality you can skip on your way to the regulator.

A professional licensing board — Nursing, Massage Therapy, Psychology, Radiologic Technology, Respiratory Care, whichever governs the credential — is a different body with different powers. It regulates the programme and the licence, not the school’s business conduct, and it will not order a school to readmit you. Sorting out which of the two can give you the thing you actually want is the first useful hour of work in most of these cases, because the wrong filing costs weeks and tells the school you are not being advised.

If the school closes while you are enrolled, section 1005.36 governs the notice it owes and the custody of student records, and section 1005.37 establishes the Student Protection Fund that can reimburse unearned tuition. Those are separate remedies from anything in your student contract and they run on their own deadlines.

A private school, so the statute students rely on does not apply

Most writing about Florida student dismissal assumes a public college, where Fla. Stat. section 1006.60(3) supplies notice, a hearing, the right to be accompanied by counsel and a burden that rests on the institution. This is a private institution. None of that section reaches it.

What governs instead is the enrolment agreement, the catalogue and the student and programme handbooks, read as a contract. Sharick v. Southeastern University of the Health Sciences establishes that a Florida student dismissed in breach of the school’s own contractual undertakings has a claim, and that damages can extend to lost future earning capacity rather than a refund of tuition.

Two further things matter at schools of this kind. Many enrolment agreements contain an arbitration clause, and whether it binds a student depends on the version signed, how broadly it is drafted, whether its cost terms are unconscionable and whether the school has waived it — that comes first, because it decides whether there is a courtroom at all. And where a school is licensed by the Florida Commission for Independent Education, the CIE complaint route exists alongside any civil claim and is often the faster pressure point.

What can a student defense lawyer do here?

Resolve the arbitration question first, from the agreement the student actually signed.
Assemble the enrolment agreement, catalogue and programme handbook for the correct edition, and pin down the promises about process.
Test the progression arithmetic — withdrawals, repeats and clinical failures are often counted in ways the handbook does not authorise.
Use the Commission for Independent Education complaint route where the school is CIE-licensed, in parallel with the civil claim.
Press on the wording of the decision letter, which follows the student into every future licensure and transfer application.

Florida nursing programme NCLEX pass rates, school by school · Florida student defence

Other Florida colleges

Every school writes its own dismissal, appeal and conduct rules, and the filing deadlines are rarely the same from one campus to the next. These pages set out the procedure at other Florida colleges:

Common questions about Antigua College International cases

What were Antigua College International’s 2025 NCLEX pass rates?

The associate degree programme had thirty-six first-time candidates with thirty passing, 83.33%, against a 76.05% benchmark. The baccalaureate programme had nine first-time candidates with seven passing, 77.78%, against a 77.59% benchmark — above it by less than two tenths of a point.

The baccalaureate rate only just cleared the benchmark. Does that help me?

Not as a defence, but it is meaningful context. A programme that close to the statutory line has an institutional interest in how its progression and completion decisions look, and that can make a school more willing to resolve a complaint quietly. Be careful with the number itself: nine candidates is a small cohort and one result moves the rate by eleven points.

Which benchmark applies to me?

Whichever matches the credential you were pursuing. In 2025 the associate-degree benchmark was 76.05% and the baccalaureate benchmark was 77.59%. Using the wrong one is an easy way to make a claim that is simply inaccurate, so take the figure from your own programme.

Does a baccalaureate dismissal differ from an associate dismissal in practice?

Yes. A baccalaureate student usually has more completed coursework and more general-education credit that transfers, so there is a longer runway to recover somewhere else. Associate students tend to be further into the clinical sequence, and clinical credit moves poorly between institutions, which makes reinstatement at the same school the more valuable remedy.

Which federal court covers Antigua College International?

Miami-Dade County is in the Southern District of Florida, Miami Division. Read your enrolment agreement first — an arbitration clause may take the dispute out of court entirely.

How fast do I need to move?

Treat it as days, not weeks. Appeal windows at institutions this size typically run from the date on the dismissal letter rather than from the date you read it. File a short notice of appeal inside the window even if your full argument is not ready.