On Wednesday 11 July, the District Court of The Hague delivered its ruling on the lawsuit which three student organisations — the Dutch National Students Association (DSNA), the Dutch National Student Union (LSVb) and the National Federation of Student Associations (LKvV) — brought against the Dutch government’s measure against extended duration of study (langstudeermaatregel), for students who study longer than the nominal duration of the degree programme.

The court only ruled in favour of the student organisations with respect to a particular group of part-time students. The ruling states: ‘This concerns part-time students who enrolled in a part-time degree programme no later than 1 February 2011, in which the curriculum as established and effectively supplied by the educational institution has a minimum duration greater than the number of years that is the sum of the total number of ECTS credits to be obtained divided by sixty, to be rounded up where necessary. Briefly stated, it therefore concerns part-time study programmes, in which the nominal study duration is longer than the nominal full-time variant.’

The article in the act in which the measure against extended duration of study is laid down will not apply until the central Dutch government has come up with an adequate transitional arrangement for this group of part-time students. Once the transitional arrangement has been determined and is available, the University of Amsterdam/Hogeschool van Amsterdam, University of Applied Sciences will inform all part-time students. Tuition fees for the 2012-2013 academic year will be determined once again for the group of students affected by this transitional arrangement, subject to the ruling of the court and the transitional arrangement of the central Dutch government.

The full court ruling (in Dutch) can be found via the link below: