The University of Iceland has broken the law. We demand that the overcharging of registration fees be corrected immediately.
According to the decision of the committee of university student appeals [Áfrýjunarnefnd í kærumálum háskólanema] from October 5th this year, the University of Iceland has based the determination of registration fees on insufficient assumptions. Students therefore cannot receive information about what they are paying for.
The background of the case
The Student Council of the University of Iceland has long questioned the legitimacy of the registration fee, the issue was discussed by the Student Council last year, but its beginnings can be traced all the way back to the spring of 2020 when the University Council decided to entrust the Rector with increasing the registration fee to ISK 104,000. Although the fee was not actually raised, the work of the Student Council continued.
In September 2020, a student at UI and Student Interest Representative of the Student Council, Jessý Jónsdóttir, demanded a refund from the university council for the part of the registration fee that she believed the law does not allow the school to charge. Registration fees in public universities are service fees that must be based on the law and may, in principle, only be charged for the services provided to the person who pays the fee. The University Council rejected the student’s claim and justified the decision by stating that the breakdown of the cost items behind the registration fee are estimated based on actual expenses of the year 2015. The case was followed up and in October 2022 the committee of university student appeals concluded that the University of Iceland had violated the rules of investigation in the determination of the registration fee and failed to properly calculate the registration fee. This ruling confirmed the Student Council’s suspicion that the fee cannot be considered only a registration fee, but is better defined as a school fee. The University Council considered the matter again, but rejected the claim once again, citing new calculations. Now the committee of university student appeals has unequivocally found that certain cost items do not comply with the law.
The position of the Student Council
The decision of the committee of university student appeals in case no. 4/2022 from October 5, 2023 rendes the decision of the University Council from November 3, 2022, regarding the rejection of the refund of the registration fee to the case applicant, invalid. The ruling is based on the committee´s findings that there are not sufficiently calculations or cost estimates behind the determination of the registration fee. Since registration fees at public universities are considered service fees, the amount of the fee must be based on reliable calculations or adequate estimates. This was lacking and therefore the University of Iceland has violated the rule of law. On October 26, 2023, the Student Council sent a letter demanding the refund of illegal registration fees dating back to 2014.
Students should not finance the University
The Student Council of the University of Iceland has for years pointed out the consequences of underfunding public higher education in Iceland, and that this affect students most. We find it both sad, unprofessional and unacceptable that the University of Iceland reaches into the pockets of students to raise money to bridge the gap caused by the underfunding of the public universities. It should be the government’s responsibility to support public higher education, not students´.
Students are generally a low-income group that is financially disadvantaged. We find it unacceptable that illegal and burdensome payments are demanded of students. The Student Council’s survey, which was presented to students last April, shows striking results about the financial situation of students. The situation is incredibly poor, student loans do not reach those who need them and too many students are forced to work alongside their studies to make ends meet. In the eyes of many, ISK 75,000 is not a large amount, but for students, every króna matters, especially when it is collected illegally and annually, wherby it quickly accumulates and can have a significant impact on student finances.
Iceland often compares itself to other Nordic countries. When it comes to supporting public higher education, we lag behind the nations we want to compare ourselves to. Support for students in Iceland is significantly less than in neighboring countries. The prerequisite for the competitiveness of university education and the competitiveness of Icelandic students at public universities compared to students from other Nordic countries is real and adequate support from the public sector.
The Student Council has demanded that the University of Iceland refund registration fees that have been collected illegally. It is not possible for students to fund the public universities. We strongly emphasize that the fundamental problem of the higher education sector in Iceland is serious underfunding, which has caused this illegal fee collection, for which the government is fully responsible.
