We were recently instructed by a student who had been terminated from his PhD studies at his University. The University stated that he had not made sufficient academic progress in the previous academic year and therefore enacted its procedures in withdrawing him from his PhD. We appealed this decision on behalf of our client. We argued that the University’s own procedures referred to an annual review taking place yet no such review had taken place; that the University’s own procedures referred to input from the supervisor on a student’s research plan yet our client did not have a supervisor for a large part of last year; that our client had also suffered mitigating circumstances in relation to his mental health and due to the death of a close relative; that the University could not therefore terminate his contract in such a way where it had not complied with its own contractual requirements.
In what was a difficult case we were extremely pleased that the University overturned the termination and accepted that the procedures were not properly followed.
