Appeals procedure

Students who disagree with a student-related decision can lodge an appeal with the Examination Appeals Board (CBE). You can read about the steps you need to take to lodge an appeal in the Appeals procedure document.

Who can lodge an appeal?

If your interests been directly affected by a decision of an examination board or an examiner, you can lodge an appeal against this decision. You can only submit an appeal if you yourself have been personally affected by the consequences of a decision or the failure to reach a decision.

Grounds for the appeal

You have to be able to put forward legal grounds for your appeal. You can do this by showing that the decision contravenes the law. This could include such things as:

• A decision that conflicts with a generally binding provision (such as the Higher Education and Scientific Research Act or the Course and Examination Regulation)
• A decision involving an abuse of power
• An unreasonable decision
• A decision that conflicts with another principle of good governance

Submitting a letter of appeal

The letter of appeal must be accompanied by:

• Your name, address, place of residence and phone number
• The date when the appeal is submitted
• A clear description of the decision against which the appeal is based
• Arguments explaining why the decision is incorrect

You should sign the letter of appeal and send this together with a copy of the decision that you are disputing to:

Leiden University 
Examination Appeals Board
P O Box 9500 
2300 RA Leiden  

Or you can send the letter of appeal by e-mail to CBE@bb.leidenuniv.nl.

Appeal period

The appeal must be lodged within 6 weeks of the date of the decision. If you are too late in submitting the letter of appeal, your appeal will only be dealt with if you have a legitimate reason for the late submission. Holiday, mistakes, an omission on the part of an authorised representative, relocation and the like are not legitimate reasons.

In the event of extreme urgency, the chairman of the Examination Appeals Board may also decide on an interim provision at the request of the student submitting the appeal.

Need more time?

If you think you need more than six weeks to be able to complete the letter of appeal, you can ask for more time. In order not to forfeit your right to appeal, you should submit a pro forma letter of appeal (example) to the CBE. In this letter you should indicate briefly the subject of your appeal and that you will provide the motivation for the appeal in a subsequent letter.

Higher appeal

If you do not agree with the decision of the CBE, you can lodge an appeal against this within six weeks with the Student Affairs department of the Council of State.

You can only submit an appeal to the Council of State after you have completed the appeal procedure with the CBE.

Assistance

Once you have read the information above, if you have any questions about the procedure you can contact one of the student counsellors.