In the absence of any agreement between the student and the college or university addressing the issue of copyright, is there any US law that gives the university the copyright in the student's paper?
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No.
(a) Initial Ownership.—Copyright in a work protected under this title vests initially in the author or authors of the work. The authors of a joint work are coowners of copyright in the work.
The author of the paper is the student.
(b) Works Made for Hire.—In the case of a work made for hire, the employer or other person for whom the work was prepared is considered the author for purposes of this title, and, unless the parties have expressly agreed otherwise in a written instrument signed by them, owns all of the rights comprised in the copyright.
This is the main exception to that rule, but it does not apply here, since the university is not hiring the student to write the paper.
Nate Eldredge
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Nate Eldredge's answer is correct, as far as it goes: in the absence of any copyright transfer agreement, any copyright to works (including class papers) created by a student belongs to the student.
That said, such an agreement may well be buried in some document, such as the university's bylaws, statutes, regulations or policies, that the student should've read (but probably didn't) before accepting them when they signed up as a student.
For example, a quick Google search for "student intellectual property" turns up this page from the University of Oxford (united-kingdom), which says (emphasis mine):
There are arrangements in the University’s regulations for protecting and exploiting intellectual property, and sharing the commercial exploitation revenues with the student originators. By accepting a place at the University of Oxford and signing the Student Contract with the University, you agree to be legally bound by these provisions.
The page then goes on to reference Oxford University Statute XVI, Part B, which it summarizes as (emphasis mine, again):
[T]he University claims ownership of student-created intellectual property that is created with the aid of University facilities or commissioned by the University or comprises inventions, designs, databases, software, firmware and courseware and related know how and information[.]
[T]he University will not assert any claim to the ownership of copyright in: artistic works including (where not commissioned by the University) books, articles, plays, scores, lyrics and lectures, student theses and answers to tests and examinations (except where claimed as above), and computer-related works (except where claimed as above).
In other words, if I'm reading this summary correctly, the copyright to an Oxford class paper would belong to the student unless it was created "with the aid of University facilities". Precisely what that means is not 100% clear to me, but taken at face value, it seems to suggest that e.g. using a university-provided laptop to type your class paper (or a university-provided journal subscription to research it) could be enough for the university to claim ownership of its copyright.
That said, the exact details don't really matter here. What does matter is that your college or university is also likely to have some kind of a policy on intellectual property created by students, which you likely agreed to (by reference, even if you didn't actually realize it) when you signed up to be a student.
The precise details of such policies are likely to vary considerably between different colleges and universities, so to find out whether or not (or under what circumstances) your university may claim copyright to your class paper, you will need to locate and examine their particular policy on the matter. Or contact the university administration and ask.
For some further examples, the same Google search also turned up similar pages for the University of Melbourne (australia), which says:
As a student, you own any IP you solely create, unless it relates to teaching material or is created under a "contracted agreement".
and for Penn State University (united-states), saying:
If any student, grad or undergrad, taking any course for credit develops IP, the IP belongs to the student and an IP assignment agreement is not required
and for the University of California (united-states):
In most cases, students who are not employed by UC own their original academic work. Under law and policy, UC owns IP made by UC employees in the course and scope of their work. When University gift/grant/contract funds, resources, or research facilities are used, UC may also own the resulting IP. If you are unsure whether the University could have an ownership interest in your IP, please contact your campus TTO for clarification.
Based on this random and likely non-representative sample, it does seem quite likely that, at least at most US universities, the copyright to an ordinary class paper remains with the student and is not claimed by the university. But to be 100% sure, you really should check the policy of the particular institute you're studying at (which you almost certainly agreed to be bound by at some point).
Ilmari Karonen
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