AbstractNurse education at undergraduate and now diploma level (Project 2000) is located in the University sector in the UK. Nursing colleges have either been incorporated into higher education institutions or have become semi‐autonomous associated colleges. This fundamental change has required considerable cultural shifts and has generated challenges for both types of institution. These have been brought into focus by the continuing development of the Project 2000 diploma level course which necessitates the interaction of the newly emerging academic discipline of nursing with the established cognate disciplines of psychology, sociology and biology. This paper reviews the recent changes in nurse education from the perspective of one of the cognate disciplines, using Project 2000 to illustrate some of educational issues which have yet to be resolved.