The Court

1. The court as 'last resort court'

Should a case not be suitable for treatment by the Higher Education Appeals Tribunal or the Examination Appeals Board the matter may be submitted to the court by a person concerned. This is the case, for example, where there is a difference of opinion between the college and a student regarding the tuition fees payable or should the college refuse to grant a student a payment from the emergency fund and the student is not in agreement with such. The hearing by the court is not free of charge, not only have court registry fees to be paid but in some case there is also a question of mandatory legal representation. That means that in that case a person is to be represented by a lawyer. These costs are in the first instance for the account of the student and may then be recovered from the college subject to the approval of the court.

Those cases submitted to the court are generally dealt with by the civil court.

2. Legal protection of participants

The participants, other than students and extraneous students, will have to approach the court in most cases should they not be in agreement with a particular decision. This is since the legal relationship between an observer and the college is not based mainly on the Higher Education and Research Act of The Netherlands (WHW) but primarily on contract law. Should an observer be suspended, for example due to the breaking of the house rules, he or she could well be indicated as an "interested party" by the Higher Education Appeals Tribunal. The latter will not normally be the case where there is a difference of opinion regarding, for instance, the level of the tuition fees payable.