The Supreme Court has ruled in favour of former part-time students of Erasmus University Rotterdam in a lawsuit over excessive tuition fees. They paid around EUR 34,000 for their two-year Master’s in Business Administration, even though their programme was Government funded. Officially, the university was only allowed to charge the statutory tuition fee.
This issue has been a topic of debate since 2018. At the time, a compensation scheme was introduced, but not everyone qualified for it or accepted the offer. The Supreme Court lawsuit was filed by a group of 133 former students.
Previous court rulings went against the students, but the Supreme Court now states that the Court of Appeal ignored key arguments. The students argued, for instance, that they were misinformed – had they received the correct information, they would have chosen the much cheaper regular Master’s programme. Moreover, the Supreme Court ruled that the programme wrongly charged extra costs which, according to the Education Inspectorate, is not allowed.
The case has been referred to the Amsterdam Court of Appeal for a new ruling. The financial impact on the university could reach up to EUR 4 million, plus potential compensation claims. The university says it is reviewing the ruling.
Bas Belleman
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