Lodging an appeal with the Examination Appeals Board

Conditions

The appeal must be received within six weeks of the date of the decision. If your appeal is not received on time, it may be declared inadmissible. In such cases, the appeal will not be dealt with substantively.

If you need more time, you may lodge a pro forma appeal within the six-week period; when doing so, you will need to specify the decision to which your appeal pertains. Once the Examination Appeals Board has received the pro forma appeal, it will set a time limit within which you will ultimately be required to explain the content of your appeal.

How do I lodge an appeal?

Appeals may be lodged digitally via the Central Complaints Office. If you wish to lodge your appeal by post, please ensure that it contains the following information:

• The name and address of the person who is lodging the appeal;
• The name of the study programme, student number, telephone number and email address of the person who is lodging the appeal (any emails from the Examination Appeals Board will be sent to an @ru.nl email address);
• The date and signature of the person who is lodging the appeal;
• A list of the reasons for why you are appealing against the decision;
• A description of the decision against which you are appealing;
• A copy of the decision against which you are appealing. 

Your appeal should subsequently be sent to:

Examination Appeals Board
Attn.: Secretary
Department of General and Legal Affairs
Radboud University
P.O. Box 9102
6500 HC Nijmegen

You can also hand-deliver your appeal to the Berchmanianum receptionist at Houtlaan 4 in Nijmegen. In this case, you will need to make sure that the receptionist records the date of receipt.

Procedure

1. Once your appeal has been received, you will receive an acknowledgement of receipt from the Examination Appeals Board. If there is any information missing from your appeal, you will be given the opportunity to complete the details. 
2. Before the Examination Appeals Board deals with your appeal, they will check to see whether they can settle the matter among themselves. This is known as an attempt to reach an amicable settlement. The Examination Appeals Board will forward a copy of your appeal to the Examining Board with the request that they consult with all of the relevant parties to see whether the matter can be resolved. 
   a) The intention is that the Board of Examiners will invite you to a settlement discussion within five working days of receiving your appeal. The Examining Board must inform the Examination Appeals Board within 21 days about whether an amicable settlement has been reached. If a settlement has been reached, the matter will be closed.
   b) If an amicable settlement cannot be reached, the Examining Board or examiner shall subsequently submit a statement of defence to the Examination Appeals Board, which will include the Examining Board’s or examiner’s perspective on the matter.
   In exceptional circumstances, the chair of the Examination Appeals Board may    decide to forgo an attempt at an amicable settlement.
3. If an amicable settlement has not been reached, the Examination Appeals Board will process the appeal.
4. Both parties will be summoned to a hearing. If you wish, you may seek the assistance of an authorised representative. Both parties will also be permitted to bring  their own witnesses and/or experts. The Examination Appeals Board may dispense with a hearing if: the appeal is inadmissible, the parties do not wish to be heard or if the appeal has been fully satisfied.
5. The Examination Appeals Board shall make its decision within ten weeks of receiving the written appeal and shall inform the parties of the content of their decision.

Provisional ruling

Sometimes, a decision is required from the Examination Appeals Board at short notice. In such cases, you can request a provisional ruling. In this instance, you will need to be able to prove that your case requires a short-term decision. This procedure will be carried out in addition to the processing of the main case. The chair of the Examination Appeals Board will hear from both parties and promptly make a decision about the ruling that is to be made. This is called a provisional ruling. The provisional ruling will cease to apply once the Examination Appeals Board has made a decision in the main case.

The rules that pertain to the Examination Appeals Board’s appeal procedure can be found in the Rules of Procedure of the Examination Appeals Board (Appendix 7 of the Student Charter).

Appeal

If your appeal has been settled and you do not agree with the outcome, you may subsequently lodge an appeal with the Appeals Tribunal for Higher Education.

Please note: as of 1 January 2023, the Higher Education Appeals Board will be discontinued. From that date, the tasks of this Board will be continued by the Administrative Jurisdiction Division of the Council of State.