Help 3rd year student midwives fund legal costs

Hi, I am one of many 3rd Year students at Canterbury ChristChurch Univerity.

In order to become midwives we are now faced with having to complete a nearly 5 year degree that should have been just 3. It has left us with no other option than to take legal action against CCCU. We are fighting to become midwives. We are fighting to be recognised. We are fighting to have our mental wellbeing acknowledged and the emotional toll this has taken to be appreciated. We are fighting to be heard.

In May 2023 the Nursing Midwifery Council (NMC) announced their decision to withdraw the accreditation from the University meaning that our degree as we knew it, no longer existed. This decision had been looming over us since March 2023, whilst at the same time we were expected to complete our dissertations and another module during these uncertain times.

Since then we have been waiting to be adopted by another university so that we could finish our degrees and become the midwives that we had worked so hard for and longed to be.

We were given a glimmer of hope when we were told that one university had been identified to adopt us but this was shortlived and our dreams once again were put on hold. Then again advised another would take us only to be told that this was not viable either.

We have now been told that a 3rd university will take us on but we will be required to complete an additional 18 months worth of work, having to entirely retake our 3rd year. Before the NMC decision was made, we only had 10 weeks worth of placement left to complete our 3rd year and now we have to start all over again from the very beginning. To date we have not been privy to any meetings, rather having to sit patiently whilst others decide our fate. In a profession that promotes 'Informed Consent', we have had none.

CCCU have not been transparent with us and we are held entirely at their mercy. They are either refusing to share our work with adopting universities or sharing the bare minimum which is why we have to complete our 3rd year again. All our hard work, sweat and tears that went into work like our dissertations, no longer count towards anything and we have to redo them. As I write this, we would have been qualified in 3 weeks time (Aug 2023), now that dream is somewhere in 2025!!

The curriculum we have been taught, has also not been to the required standard, so in effect, we have paid tuition for a service they have not been able to provide. We have asked repeatedly for their complaints procedure and what compensation would look like for us, but have been stone walled at every opportunity, and the information has not been shared.

We need your help and support to be able to pursue this matter legally. We literally are poor students taking on a major university that has paid legal teams at their disposal.

Even if you can only contribute a small amount it will all help make a difference to us, and support us in taking legal action and holding the university to account for their treatment of us.

Please, please help us. We are desperate to become midwives and see this as our only course of action.