ANALYSIS
1. Existence of the HEI?Student Contractual Relationship
Clark v University of Lincolnshire and Humberside 2000 View
- Clark, the leading case in this area, provides conclusive authority that there exists between a HEI and its students, a contractual relationship. More precisely, that contract is a contract to educate.
- The Court of Appeal in Clark View attempt to explain the circumstances in which claims for breach of contract are justiciable, that is, the circumstances in which the courts will be prepared to decide claims. Sedley LJ refers to matters of ?academic or pastoral judgement' regarding which the judgement of the courts would be ?jejune and inappropriate'. Such matters are, accordingly, currently non-justiciable in the courts, though quite what exactly these non-justiciable matters are, is unclear. Sedley LJ gives the example of a student disputing the class or mark he is awarded as being non-justiciable; however, there is likely to be uncertainty at the boundaries where the categories of ?justiciable' and ?non-justiciable' meet.
- See also:
Herring v Templeman 1973 View
- For a more information on the issue of justiciability, see the HEL text, Chapter 6, Appendix 1 and also the ?Method of Adjudication' page of this HEL Online Casebook.
It is significant that subsequent to the Clark 2000 [View] litigation, there have been out of court settlements based on alleged breaches of contract by HEIs.
In August 2002 the University of Wolverhampton paid £30,000 to a mature student who was dissatisfied with the quality of the Wolverhampton law degree (see Times, 1 August, 2002). The student's complaint included the University's failure to provide specific courses that it had advertised as being ...