Keiser University Fort Lauderdale Student Defense Lawyer

Keiser University’s Fort Lauderdale campus inverts the pattern found at most Keiser locations: here it is the baccalaureate programme that fell below the statutory floor while the associate programme passed comfortably above it.

Associate 88.46%, baccalaureate 70.59%

The associate-degree programme passed 88.46% of 52 first-time candidates in 2025, more than twelve points above its 76.05% floor. The baccalaureate programme passed 70.59% of 51 against a floor of 77.59% — seven points short, on a comparable cohort.

That is an unusual and useful configuration. It defeats the argument that the campus, the clinical placements or the applicant pool explain a weak result, because the associate programme drew on all three and performed well. For a baccalaureate student dismissed on progression grounds, the parallel programme on the same campus is the comparison that matters, and it is a comparison the university itself generated.

Under Fla. Stat. section 464.019(5)(a)1 a Florida nursing programme’s first-time NCLEX passage rate must stay within 10 percentage points of the national average for comparable programmes — for 2025 that floor was 76.05% for associate-degree programmes and 77.59% for baccalaureate programmes. Section 464.019(5)(a)2 puts a programme two consecutive years below it at risk of probation and loss of approval, and section 464.019(5)(c) then obliges the programme to disclose that probationary status in writing to its students and applicants. A single year below the floor is not probation, and the Board of Nursing publishes no probation roster, so probationary status has to be established from board minutes and orders rather than inferred from the rate. Every Florida programme and campus is tabulated on the Florida nursing programme pass-rate page.

What the number does do is explain the pattern. A programme under pressure to raise its first-time pass rate has an institutional reason to remove students it predicts will fail, and progression rules get applied more strictly than they read on the page. That is a fair point to put to a university, and a reason to check the rule actually applied against the rule as published.

Keiser is private, so the statute students rely on does not apply

Almost everything written about Florida student discipline 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. Keiser University is private. 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. That is a narrower footing but not a weak one. Sharick v. Southeastern University of the Health Sciences establishes that a Florida student dismissed in breach of the institution’s own contractual undertakings has a claim, and that damages can extend to lost future earning capacity rather than a refund of tuition. The practical work is therefore documentary: identify the exact promises the university made about process, and show which of them it did not keep.

Deal with the arbitration clause before anything else

Keiser’s enrolment agreement has contained an arbitration clause. Whether it binds a particular student depends on the version they actually signed, how broadly it is drafted, whether it reaches non-contract claims, whether it is unconscionable in its cost or forum terms, and whether the university has waived it by litigating. That question comes first, because it decides whether there is a courtroom at all.

It also changes the venue analysis rather than removing it. If a claim falls outside the clause, or the clause fails, ordinary venue rules apply. And even inside arbitration, a petition to compel, confirm or vacate under the Federal Arbitration Act is filed in a federal district court — so the district a campus sits in still matters.

Where a Fort Lauderdale case is filed

Broward County is in the Southern District of Florida under 28 U.S.C. section 89(c), Fort Lauderdale Division — the same division as Keiser’s Pembroke Pines campus.

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, student handbook and programme handbook for the correct edition, and identify the specific promises about process.
  • Test the progression arithmetic — withdrawals, repeats and clinical failures are often counted in ways the handbook does not authorise.
  • Press on the wording of the decision letter, which follows the student into every licensure and transfer application afterwards.
  • Preserve every internal appeal, on the shortest deadline any document states, while the contract analysis is developed.

The main university page, which sets out Keiser’s policy framework and every campus below the benchmark, is here: Keiser University student defence.

Other Florida universities

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 universities:

Common questions about Keiser University Fort Lauderdale cases

Which Keiser Fort Lauderdale programme was below the benchmark?

The baccalaureate programme, at 70.59% of 51 first-time candidates against a 77.59% floor. The associate-degree programme on the same campus passed 88.46% of 52, well above its floor.

Why does that split help a baccalaureate student?

Because it removes the usual explanations. The campus, the clinical placements and the applicant pool were shared with an associate programme that performed well, so those cannot account for the baccalaureate result.

Am I covered by Florida’s public-college discipline statute?

No. Fla. Stat. section 1006.60(3) applies to public colleges. Keiser is private, so the enrolment agreement and handbooks govern as a contract, under Sharick v. Southeastern University of the Health Sciences.

Which court covers the Fort Lauderdale campus?

The Southern District of Florida, Fort Lauderdale Division. Broward County is in the Southern District under 28 U.S.C. section 89(c).