Erasmus University loses lawsuit over high tuition fees

Former part-time students of Erasmus University are embroiled in a years-long legal battle over their exorbitant tuition fees. Now, they have received a ruling in their favour from the Supreme Court.

For their two-year master in Business Administration at Erasmus University, these part-time students paid around 34,000 euros. However, their programme was funded by the government, so it was only permitted to charge the statutory tuition fee.

This issue has been hotly debated since 2018. The Education Inspectorate and the then-minister have commented on it, consistently siding with the students. However, the university had to resolve the matter itself.

An amicable settlement was reached with some of the former students, but others were excluded or did not agree to it. The case at the Supreme Court was brought by a group of 133 former students.

They have won the case, but it is still unclear what this means financially. If they each receive around 30,000 euros back, that amounts to about four million euros in total. There could also be compensation on top of that.

Still good news

The initial court had declared the case inadmissible: the students were supposedly at the wrong address. In the appeals court, the students were deemed admissible, but they lost their case: they knew what they were getting into, was the short judgment of the Court of Appeal in The Hague.

The Supreme Court sees problems with this last ruling. The students argued that they had received incorrect information, as they would have chosen the much cheaper standard master’s programme otherwise. The Court did nothing with this argument, the Supreme Court states in its cassation.

Moreover, the programme charged various fees, which is not legally permissible at all. The Education Inspectorate has made this clear, according to the Supreme Court.

To Amsterdam

Thus, the court refers the case back to another court (Amsterdam) for a new ruling. The outcome remains to be seen, but it seems to be good news for the former students.

Not so for the university: after all these years, the matter is still unresolved. “We have taken note of the ruling and are considering its implications”, says a spokesperson.