FIU Nursing (NWCNHS) — Dismissal & Appeals

Written by Zachary Gaynor, attorney · The Florida Bar, admitted 2016 · court admissions. Reviewed 1 October 2026.

How many failures does FIU nursing allow?

One. At FIU’s Nicole Wertheim College of Nursing & Health Sciences, every nursing course must be passed with a C or better, a failed course can be repeated once, and the program allows one failed nursing course in the entire curriculum. Fail the same course twice — or any two courses — and the handbook’s word is “immediately dismissed.” The grievance window that can challenge a bad grade before it becomes that failure is short: the college’s procedure requires the first step within 10 business days after classes begin the following semester.

The progression rules

The Bachelor of Science in Nursing Student Handbook (NWCNHS, current edition) sets the sequence: each clinical and didactic course builds on the last, a failed course must be repeated before the next sequenced course, and not every course runs every semester — so one failure routinely costs more than one term. To remain enrolled, a student must be able to finish no more than three semesters beyond the planned graduation date in their plan of study.

The one-failure rule: a failed nursing course that is repeated and passed still counts as the one failure allowed. University grade forgiveness may fix the GPA, but the handbook is explicit that forgiveness does not reset the failure count — the next failure, or a drop for academic reasons, is dismissal.

Drops count too: a student who drops one or more courses in a semester for academic reasons may re-enter the program one time only. Any later drop or failure is dismissal. This applies across the Traditional, Accelerated, and Foreign-Educated Physician pathways.

Senior Nursing Synthesis (NUR 4940) has its own ladder: a failure there is not counted as the fatal second failure if the first came in a different course, but the student must complete a prescribed NCLEX review class at their own cost before the second attempt — and two failures of NUR 4940 mean dismissal.

Leaving without permission is its own ground: separating from a pre-licensure program without the Undergraduate Chair’s prior written approval, and staying unenrolled for three consecutive semesters, is dismissal — and an approved return requires a remediation plan filed within seven business days of re-entry. Students who fail out must wait at least one year before reapplying.

The 10-business-day grievance clock

FIU separates the program’s progression machinery from the student’s tool for challenging it: the academic grievance. Under the college’s Informal Student Academic Grievance procedure (effective July 22, 2026), implementing FIU’s university-wide policy #340.340, a student contesting an arbitrary or capricious grade, or an arbitrary dismissal from the program, must start with the instructor or program administrator no later than 10 business days after classes begin in the semester following the one where the problem arose — or the grievance is untimely. The informal track runs instructor, then department chair; only after the college’s process is exhausted does the formal university grievance open.

That clock is the whole strategy. A contested grade in a December course must be grieved in the first two weeks of January — precisely when a student is waiting to “see how things go.” If the grade being grieved is the one that would count as the program’s single allowed failure, the grievance is not paperwork; it is the case.

FIU is a public university. Florida and federal courts recognize that a public-university student has a protected interest in continued enrollment, which means a dismissal must come with notice and a meaningful opportunity to be heard — on top of the college’s own published procedures. Whether the college followed its own handbook, step by step and date by date, is the record an appeal stands on.

Where the governing documents are

The BSN Student Handbook (progression, repeating courses, and dismissal sections), the NWCNHS Informal Student Academic Grievance procedure, and FIU’s Student Academic Grievance Policy #340.340. The handbook edition for your cohort governs — verify each deadline against the current documents.

Other Florida nursing programs

These pages set out the procedure at related programs: UCF College of Nursing, USF College of Nursing, FSU College of Nursing, UF College of Nursing, and all Florida nursing programs. The general framework is at nursing school dismissal.

Common questions

I failed one nursing course. What is my actual position?

You may repeat it once, and it permanently uses the program’s one allowed failure. From this point forward, any failed nursing course — or a drop for academic reasons after your one re-entry — is dismissal. The practical move now is to make sure this failure was clean: if the grade was arbitrary, the 10-business-day grievance clock at the start of next semester is your only scheduled chance to say so.

Does grade forgiveness erase the failure?

It repairs your GPA, not your count. The handbook states that a forgiven failure still counts toward the one-failure rule. Students relying on forgiveness as a reset discover the difference at the worst possible moment.

I was dismissed after failing NUR 4940 twice. Anything left?

The questions a lawyer asks: was the required NCLEX review completed and documented before the second attempt; was the second attempt graded under the same standards as everyone else’s; and did anything that should have changed the record — an approved accommodation not delivered, an excused-withdrawal petition that was ignored — get left out. The university-level grievance and, at a public university, due process are the frameworks those facts go into.

I need to step away for a semester. How do I avoid making it worse?

Get the Undergraduate Chair’s approval in writing before you separate, with the remediation plan the handbook requires. An unapproved separation that stretches to three consecutive semesters is itself a dismissal ground — the paperwork before you leave is cheaper than the readmission fight after.

How fast do I have to grieve a grade?

The informal grievance must be initiated within 10 business days after classes begin in the following semester, starting with the instructor, then the department chair. Miss it and the grievance is untimely — which, when the grade at issue is a failure, can convert one bad grade into the end of the program.