UWI PhD student gets leave to fight for degree

The Court of Appeal has given PhD student Suzette Curtello the go ahead to take her case to the Judicial Review Court to challenge a decision of the Board for Graduate Studies and Research of the University of the West Indies Mona, which has prevented her from completing her studies.

Curtello had appealed against a Supreme Court order by Justice Andrew Rattray in December 2017 which refused her application for leave to obtain judicial review.

When the matter came for hearing before Justice Rattray, the UWI, which is the respondent, took a preliminary objection that Justice Bryan Sykes (now Chief Justice) had made an earlier issue on the matter in 2015. 

Sykes had ruled then that there were other avenues open to Curtello which she could use to settle her grouse such as going to the University Visitor.

Sykes said the decision of the Visitor was subject to judicial review.

Curtello wrote to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth, who was the then University Visitor, in February 2016 on the issue.

In an August 2016 response, she stated that it was not a matter in which she could help but that instructions were given for Curtello's letter to be forwarded to the Governor General of Jamaica.

Curtello received a response from the Governor General's office in September 2016 that Sir Patrick Allen was not the Visitor of the university and was not directed by Her Majesty to perform that role.

Following Justice Rattray's ruling in the Supreme Court, Curtello asked the Court of Appeal to determine whether the remedy of complaining to the University Visitor was available to her at the time she filed the application for judicial review.

The Court of Appeal, comprising Justice Frank Williams, Justice Paulette Williams and Justice Jennifer Straw, ruled last week Friday that at the time of the commencement of the court proceedings, Curtello had no alternative means of redress. 

The court set aside the decision of Justice Rattray and granted Curtello's application for leave to obtain judicial review.

The UWI was ordered to pay the appellant's legal costs.

Curtello, who was pursuing a PhD in biochemistry, claimed that in 2014 she was told that the Board of Graduate Studies and Research required that she should complete nine additional credits to finish the programme.

She contends that when she commenced her studies in 2007, the additional credits were not part of the programme. 

When she submitted her thesis in 2013, the faculty waived the requirement, but because of the Board's decision, she was unable to defend her thesis.

King's Counsel Caroline Hay, attorneys-at-law Neco Pagon and Kalisia Miller, instructed by Caroline P Hay, represented Curtello.

The UWI was represented by attorneys-at-law Christopher Kelman and Stephanie Ewbank, instructed by Myers Fletcher and Gordon.

- Barbara Gayle

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