ON the day they should have been celebrating their results, student nurses locked in a graduation battle staged a protest instead.

About 30 nursing undergraduates, and student leaders, gathered outside the school of health at Teesside University yesterday morning.

They hoped to force the end of a protest organised by the National Association of Teachers in Further and Higher Education over workloads and conditions.

The dispute has prompted a refusal by nursing lecturers at Teesside to take part in an assessment board to determine students' grades.

While it is hoped that the board will meet on Tuesday, without tutors' co-operation, students face missing the deadline for registering with nursing's two statutory bodies.

If they don't register, they cannot practice in the profession