By Lebone Rodah Mosima
The KwaZulu-Natal Department of Health has welcomed the approval granted by the South African Qualifications Authority (SAQA) NQF Qualifications Committee at its recent meeting, paving the way for the province’s College of Nursing to offer a Bachelor of Nursing qualification at NQF Level 8, with a minimum of 480 credits.
Health MEC Nomagugu Simelane congratulated the college on the milestone.
“[I]t bears testimony to the excellent work that is being done by the management and staff of the college, who continue to ensure that we produce nurses who are well equipped to serve our people,” Simelane said during an official KZN Health Chat podcast.
She said the timing of the achievement made it even more meaningful, as it came during Women’s Month.
She said that nursing remains a women-intensive profession and paid tribute to the many women who have dedicated their lives to caring for others.
“At the same time, we continue to encourage more men to enter the nursing profession and help us build a stronger and more representative nursing workforce,” she said.
The Bachelor of Nursing degree will also establish a stronger and more direct academic pathway for nurses wishing to advance their careers and specialise.
Unlike the previous pathway, where nurses required completion of lower-level qualifications before progressing academically, the new degree offers graduates an NQF Level 8 qualification, putting them in a more advantageous position to pursue postgraduate studies and specialist nursing programmes.
While the department did not say when the college submitted this specific Bachelor of Nursing qualification for approval, the milestone comes after years of difficulty nationally in moving public nursing colleges into the higher education system.
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The transition to new nursing qualifications began in 2015, and by 2019 the KZN College of Nursing was among 10 public nursing colleges designated to offer qualifications, including bachelor’s degrees, under the new higher education framework from 2020.
In a parliamentary reply in July 2026, the Department of Higher Education and Training said nursing colleges had been designated to offer qualifications aligned with the Higher Education Qualifications Sub-Framework since 2020, but that their migration into the national higher education system was still under way and faced legal, budgetary, structural and infrastructure challenges.
Concerns over the slow process date back even further. In 2016, Nursing Education Association chief executive Nelouise Geyer said public nursing colleges, which were responsible for about 80% of nursing graduates at the time, were struggling to meet the requirements for recognition as higher education institutions and that progress in accrediting new nursing programmes had been slow.
In 2022, Nursing Education Association chairperson Dr Sue Armstrong said difficulties getting curricula approved had made public colleges reluctant to start the new degree programme, reducing their ability to produce professional nurses. At the time, she said universities were the institutions offering the course required to qualify as a professional nurse, while problems with progression between qualification levels were also restricting career and specialisation opportunities for some nurses.
Nursing unions have also repeatedly raised concerns about the effect of accreditation and training delays on an already stretched health system. Young Nurses Indaba Trade Union chairperson Lerato Mthunzi said in 2022 that the sluggish transition was “holding the profession ransom” and affecting the quality of healthcare that could be provided.
The Democratic Nursing Organisation of South Africa (DENOSA) has more recently linked nursing education reform to the shortage of health workers. At its national congress in March 2025, the union called for the “immediate accreditation of nursing institutions” as part of efforts to address a critical shortage of trained healthcare professionals.
Simelane said that nurses can progress more efficiently towards higher-level and specialist qualifications.
“We need more specialists in our health system, and strengthening the academic pathway for our nurses is an important part of achieving this,” she said.
She added that the college has provided the province with several reasons to be proud in recent months, including the launch of the Nephrology Nurse Specialist programme, which is among the first of its kind in South Africa’s public nursing education sector.
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“These achievements show that our college is growing, innovating and positioning itself to meet the specialist skills needs of our healthcare system,” she said.
She said the department would continue to support the college as it expands nursing education and develops the next generation of healthcare professionals.
“This is good news for nursing, good news for our healthcare system and, ultimately, good news for the people of KwaZulu-Natal,” she said.
“We congratulate the college and look forward to seeing this new chapter unfold.”
