The British Columbia Court of Appeal has dismissed the appeal of six graduates of the University of British Columbia’s MBA program, finding that UBC had the right to ‘adjust’ their tuition fees to $28,000 each from the fees of $7,000 that they had previously contracted to pay.

Chief Justice Finch, for the Court, stated that “although I have sympathy for the appellants in this case, they have not established a reversible error on the part of the trial judge.” He found that the statement in the tuition fee agreement that “fees for the year are subject to adjustment and the University reserves the right to change fees without notice” enabled UBC to quadruple tuition after the contract had been made. He also concluded that the quadrupling was not unconscionable.

This has proven to be a harsh introduction to the world of business for these business school students, particularly since UBC seems intent on pusuing them for court costs.

Read the decision.