The University’s numerus clausus for the nursing course will be removed after a series of initiatives enabled its elimination without affecting the standard of education.

The student limit will be removed for both the preparatory course and the degree course, the university said.

The numerus clausus had come under fire in October when the nurses’ union had ordered industrial action over the limit set, arguing students should not be rejected from the course when the country needed so many nurses.

The university maintained, however, that during 2009 and 2010, no eligible applicants were rejected from the course, meaning the numerus clausus was not applied.

The gradual increase in the number of course applicants over the years and the subsequent removal of the limit was made possible through a series of initiatives over the past four years, the university said.

This included agreements with the private sector to allow for clinical placements, the training of 300 mentors, recruiting of additional lecturers and the development of guided study packs to help students in areas where placements were limited.

These initiatives maintained the high quality of the educational programmes in spite of the increase in student numbers, it said.

There are about 560 students enrolled with the Department of Nursing this academic year.

First level nursing programmes have been run at the University of Malta since 1988, when the first cohort of students were admitted to the BSc Nursing programmes and since then there have been 444 graduates with a BSc in Nursing and 650 diploma holders.