students, contract, public law, private law, judicial review, universities, litigation
Are third-level students entitled to treat their relationship with their college as contractual, or are their entitlements a matter of public law? A plausible case could be made for either interpretation, though most litigation around this issue is in fact fought on public law ground rather than private law. The notion that contract is on the rise here, and that in time universities will have to acknowledge that they are dealing with “customers” rather than students, has considerable political traction; but as a matter of law there is little evidence for it, nor reason to suppose that a private law analysis will become more appropriate in the foreseeable future.