ST. JOHN'S, N.L. — A lawsuit filed against Memorial University by a group of former students almost five years ago has yet to see any progress, though the court has so far not granted MUN's request to throw out the case.
Four former engineering students from China filed a statement of claim with Newfoundland and Labrador Supreme Court in February 2015, indicating they wanted to start a class action against MUN for alleged negligence causing them to flunk out of their programs. The group was represented by Haowei Chen, since he was the only one of the four still residing in the province at the time of the claim.
Chen has since moved out of the province, leaving the proposed class action without a required representative.
The former students say they were living in China when they applied to enrol as graduate students in MUN's faculty of engineering and applied science (FEAS) in 2011. They say the university compelled them to apply through a recruiting agency in China, at a cost of $3,000, and they allege students from other countries can apply directly to the university without having to pay this third-party fee.
Once admitted to the program, the former students say, they were required to pay a $20,000 "special fee" on top of tuition costs, which was charged only to Chinese students.
"The plaintiffs state that despite the fact that they paid a significant amount of money to attend the university, there were numerous deficiencies in the instruction and administration of the FEAS program, all of which led to academic failure of the plaintiffs," the statement of claim reads.
The former students allege issues with unavailable courses, poor academic advice, poor instruction and poor communication between administrators and students.
Once the students failed out of the program, their fees were not refunded, as they had been told in advance, they say.
They say MUN breached its contract by failing to provide appropriate advice, instruction, and access to programs and information, and was also negligent.
"The plaintiffs state that as students, the university owed them a duty of care. Further, that as international students with limited English language skills, the university owed them a higher duty of care," court documents state.
In media interviews in 2013, MUN officials defended the "special fee," saying the programs in question, which include more courses than other research programs, require extra faculty, language training and other resources, and incurred extra administrative and recruiting costs.
MUN filed an application to dismiss the case a year ago, arguing Chen had not given any indication that he intended to pursue the claim, since he last filed documents in 2016.
The matter was heard in court Oct. 24, with lawyer Steve Orr explaining that the former students were having difficulty finding a representative and arguing that the resulting delay was therefore reasonable. He applied to convert the class action into separate non-class action proceedings.
The university's lawyer argued the delay has been unreasonable and a ground to dismiss the case, pointing out Chen had said in a media interview in 2013 that he had a petition signed by 50 other graduate students with concerns.
Justice Carl Thompson ordered the former students contact all those who may have been eligible for inclusion in the class action and inform them of the application before the matter proceeds any further.
