NSU Physician Assistant Program — Dismissal & Appeals

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

What happens when an NSU physician assistant student fails a course?

At Nova Southeastern University, any course failure in the physician assistant program, didactic or clinical, sends the student to the Committee on Student Progress (CSP), and dismissal is one of the outcomes on the table. The CSP only recommends. The department chair decides, and the student then has five business days to appeal to a School-Wide Appeals Committee that reviews procedure only. Lawyers are barred from the hearings at both stages, so the written record you build before them is the case.

The PA program now sits in the Dr. Pallavi Patel School of Health Sciences, inside NSU’s Dr. Kiran C. Patel College of Allopathic Medicine, and its academic rules are in that college’s handbook. The rules below apply across the Fort Lauderdale, Orlando, Fort Myers, and Jacksonville PA campuses.

The numbers that trigger a referral

• 75 percent. Below 75 percent in any course is a course failure.
• One remediation exam per course, two per program. A remediation exam is given three to five business days after the course ends, no more than two courses may be remediated across the whole program, and a passed remediation is capped at the minimum passing grade, recorded as C(E).
• 2.0 cumulative GPA to graduate, along with completing all didactic and clinical work and showing professional behavior throughout the program.
• Incompletes become an F if they are not converted within 90 days.
• Four years, total. The program has a four-year maximum to finish, and that clock includes any approved leave or administrative break. A failed course is repeated at extra tuition, sometimes after a leave until the course is offered again, so every repeat eats into the four years.

What the Committee on Student Progress can do

The CSP reviews academic problems and violations of professional or behavioral codes of conduct. Its sanctions climb in four steps:

• Academic warning for one remediated failure, kept in the program file but not on the transcript
• Academic probation for any course failure, which does appear on the transcript
• Suspension
• Dismissal

Dismissal can also follow failing to meet the conditions of probation, a Code of Student Conduct violation, academic dishonesty, or a confirmed positive drug screen. A PA student who is not showing satisfactory professional behavior is referred to the CSP the same way an academic failure is. The handbook does not publish a professionalism rubric, so the write-up that started the referral matters a great deal.

At the CSP hearing the student is excluded while witnesses are questioned, and must list their own witnesses at least two business days ahead. Legal representation is not permitted, and neither is any other form of representation in the hearing. The chair can adopt, reject, or modify the committee’s recommendation, so the chair is the real audience.

The appeal: five business days, procedure only

A student may appeal the chair’s decision within five business days to the chair of the School-Wide Appeals Committee (SWAC), which has six faculty members from the school and a nonvoting member from the dean’s office or Student Affairs. Grade disputes are different: the chair’s decision on a grade is final. SWAC’s review is limited to whether NSU’s, the college’s, and the school’s procedures were followed. It does not consider new evidence, and its decision is final and binding, with no further appeal.

The handbook also prohibits legal representation in preparing a SWAC appeal and at its hearing. NSU is a private university, so the constitutional due-process protections that apply at public schools do not fill that gap. The handbook is the rulebook. Two things follow. First, everything that could change the outcome has to be in front of the CSP and the chair, because SWAC will not hear it later. Second, the strongest SWAC appeal points to a specific step in NSU’s own written procedure that was skipped or misapplied.

A grade dispute has its own five-business-day window, and the grounds are limited to discrimination, arbitrary or capricious action, or a procedural irregularity.

Clinical year

The supervised clinical practice experiences differ by campus. Fort Lauderdale runs six core rotations and three electives, Orlando seven core rotations plus a selective and an elective, Fort Myers six core rotations plus a selective and two electives, and Jacksonville seven core rotations and two electives. Orlando’s published rules require a passing grade on each end-of-rotation exam and send a rotation still failed after retesting to the CSP. The other campuses keep their rotation and end-of-rotation exam rules in program clinical handbooks that are not posted publicly. If you are in the clinical year, ask for your campus’s clinical handbook in writing before you respond to anything.

Leave and readmission

A leave of absence must be requested at least 14 days before the semester, and the maximum is 180 days in any 12-month period. After a suspension, readmission needs approval from the chair or program director. After a dismissal, the only route back is reapplying as a new applicant and repeating all coursework, and readmission is not guaranteed. That is why the CSP stage, not a later reapplication, is usually the place to fight.

Where the governing documents are

The Dr. Kiran C. Patel College of Allopathic Medicine Student Handbook (2025–2026 edition) holds the PA program’s academic standing, CSP, SWAC, remediation, and campus-specific sections. Where a campus PA handbook directly conflicts with it, the college handbook controls. Policies change year to year, so start with the edition for your enrollment year and the current one.

Other NSU and Florida PA and health programs

These pages set out the procedure at related programs: the Florida physician assistant programs overview, the UF School of Physician Assistant Studies, NSU’s MD college, and NSU’s osteopathic college.

Common questions

I failed one course in NSU’s PA program. Will I be dismissed?

Not automatically, but a single failure triggers a CSP referral, and dismissal is one of the committee’s options. Remediation is limited to two courses across the program, and a remediated course is capped at the minimum passing grade, so how the first failure is handled shapes everything after it.

Can a lawyer attend my CSP or SWAC hearing?

No. The handbook bars legal representation at the CSP and bars it in preparing and presenting a SWAC appeal. Within those rules, a student can still understand the handbook, the record, and the procedural steps before the hearing. Whether and how a lawyer can help is something to sort out against the current handbook before the hearing date.

What does the School-Wide Appeals Committee review?

Only whether NSU, the college, and the school followed their own procedures. It does not take new evidence, and its decision is final. The substance of your case has to be in the CSP record.

How fast do I need to act?

Five business days from the chair’s decision for an appeal, and five business days for a grade dispute. Witness lists for the CSP are due two business days before the hearing. Treat it as days, not weeks.