{"id":182807,"date":"2025-10-22T11:53:52","date_gmt":"2025-10-22T09:53:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.erasmusmagazine.nl\/en\/?p=182807"},"modified":"2025-12-19T11:27:57","modified_gmt":"2025-12-19T10:27:57","slug":"mueslireep-i-p-v-banaan-rechters-verspillen-energie-aan-kansloze-studentenzaken","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.erasmusmagazine.nl\/en\/2025\/10\/22\/mueslireep-i-p-v-banaan-rechters-verspillen-energie-aan-kansloze-studentenzaken\/","title":{"rendered":"Muesli bar instead of a banana: ‘Judges waste energy on hopeless student cases’"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Council of State spends too much time on \u2018futile\u2019 student cases, says Groningen professor and judge Bert Marseille. \u201cThe balance has been lost.\u201d But not everyone agrees.<\/p>\n

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A full house during this IBA lecture<\/span><\/p>

\n\t\n\n<\/svg>\n<\/span>\n\tImage by:<\/span>\n\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tAysha Gasanova<\/a>\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>

Leiden law student Jordy Loof received a 7.5 for his thesis and thought that wasn\u2019t good enough. His first examiner had given him \u2018a solid eight\u2019 \u2013 so how could the second examiner bring that down to a 7.5? Loof took the matter to the Council of State.<\/p>\n

The Council of State is the Netherlands\u2019 highest administrative court, but also the first court that students turn to when they challenge a decision by their institution. Students appear in The Hague and later receive a detailed, written judgment, sometimes from multiple judges. Loof lost his case<\/a>.<\/p>\n

A lawsuit over half a point \u2018might seem exaggerated\u2019, Loof admits. \u201cBut graduating cum laude can still make a difference on the job market.\u201d And there\u2019s a reason the law allows students to challenge decisions made by their universities or universities of applied sciences.<\/p>\n

And Loof is not the only one. Judges also deal with<\/a> the case of a student who wasn\u2019t satisfied with a grade of eight. Or consider the complaint about a medical school selection day: an applicant wanted to receive a banana, like some others, instead of a muesli bar, and complained of unequal treatment.<\/p>\n

Even \u2018the most futile grievances\u2019 receive full attention from the Council of State, writes Bert Marseille in Ars Aequi<\/a><\/em>, a monthly legal magazine. Should the Council of State devote less time to some student cases? Or does every student deserve equal attention?<\/p>\n

Bitter<\/h2>

Marseille is professor of public administration at the University of Groningen and deputy judge at the Central Appeals Tribunal, the highest administrative court for, among other things, social security and civil service law.<\/p>\n

He reviewed a hundred student cases since September last year. In 68 of them, the students\u2019 arguments were \u2018so futile, vague, poorly substantiated or irrelevant\u2019 that anyone could have foreseen they would lose. Yet the court still takes the time for a hearing and a written judgment.<\/p>\n

That could be reduced, argues Marseille. Especially when cases with far greater consequences are sometimes dismissed without even being heard. That happens regularly in asylum cases.<\/p>\n\n\t

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