Linnaeus University receives criticism from the Swedish Higher Education Authority

One of the cases concerned a student whose application for a credit transfer was rejected after a long processing time. The student appealed to the Higher Education Appeals Board (ÖHN), which forwarded the case to UKÄ in its capacity of supervisory authority. UKÄ has now established that the university has not met the requirement for speedy and simple processing. UKÄ gives Linnaeus University criticism and closes the case.

"We have handled this case incorrectly. This is unfortunate and we have now gone over our routines to make sure that this will not happen again", says Marie Brorsson, manager at the office of student affairs.

The other case concerns an international student who has been admitted to a master programme at Linnaeus University, but who due to health problems and personal conditions was not able to commence his/her studies. The student followed the university's instructions and logged in on the university's web and registered on two courses. However, the student never came to Sweden and never began his/her studies at the university.

Following an individual assessment of the case, Linnaeus University has repaid half of the tuition fee. However, the student is of the opinion that he/she should be repaid the full amount of the tuition fee.

UKÄ notes that the authority does not have authority to re-examine or change higher education institutions' decisions concerning tuition fees. UKÄ also establishes that information about the university's regulations is available on the university's web and that the student has also been given information about the regulations via email. However, UKÄ states that Linnaeus University needs to clarify certain information in one of its forms.

UKÄ gives Linnaeus University certain criticism and closes the case.

"We have made an individual assessment of the case and followed both the Higher Education Ordinance and our Local regulations on how such cases should be handled. We need to clarify certain information, and this will be done in order to ensure that we can continue acting with legal certainty towards our students", Brorsson concludes.