LITTLE ROCK — The University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff has two years to improve its nursing program or the state Department of Higher Education will recommend discontinuing state funding for the degree.
An improvement plan obtained through the Arkansas Freedom of Information Acton Friday shows the department conducted a May 27 review of the program after five months of student complaints.
The plan recommends the program be placed on inactive status, which means it cannot admit new students.
The Higher Education Coordinating Board will review progress on performance and organizational goals at the end of both this year and next year to consider placing the program back on active status. If the degree remains inactive for two years, the board will remove its approval, the plan states.
“I think the institution is committed to righting the situation,” said Jim Purcell, director of the Higher Education Department.
The Higher Education Coordinating Board on Friday received a letter from the university, voluntarily placing the program on inactive status.
The May 27 academic review preceded the Arkansas Board of Nursing’s July 14 decision to put the program on probation, citing three consecutive years of fewer than 75 percent of graduates passing an exam required for licensure.
This is the fourth time the nursing board has put the program on probation since it started in 1976. Graduates must meet the 75 percent testing benchmark for the next two years or the nursing board will pull its approval.
Thirteen of 22 first-time UAPB test-takers, or 59 percent, passed the National Council Licensure Examination for Registered Nurses in fiscal 2010, which ended June 30. In 2009, 36.4 percent passed, and 61.5 percent passed in 2008.
Like the nursing board’s plan, the Higher Education Department’s plan requires UAPB to provide remediation for nursing students who should have graduated in the spring of 2010.
UAPB Chancellor Lawrence Davis Jr. said none of the 17 seniors in the program was allowed to graduate in the spring after each failed a practice licensure exam required to pass a mandatory course. Several walked at graduation but did not receive diplomas.
Davis said through a university spokesman Friday that instructors in a summer remediation program inadvertently gave the students the same qualifying test they had previously taken. The students must now take a fourth qualifying test.
“We do believe there should be an institutional assumption that those students can do well,” Purcell said. “If there are some shortcomings that the student needs to enhance,its up to the institution to help a student get there.”
The Higher Education Department plan also requires:
testing and remediation for all current nursing students.
a review of course content.
the implementation of an admission test for the nursing program.
annual faculty reviews.
faculty improvement plans.
It’s unusual for the board to remove approval for a program, but it’s not uncommon for a university to voluntarily make a program inactive while the faculty makes improvements, Purcell said.
Arkansas, Pages 9 on 07/31/2010