Do universities have a fiduciary duty to provide enough classes for their students?

Question

A college junior, told me that most students at her university are unable to register for classes they need to graduate because there aren't enough classes offered, and because of that huge majority of students cannot graduate their 4-year programs in 4 years. I checked 4-year graduation rate statistics, and indeed, her university's 4-year graduation rate is abysmal 7%. Then a quick look at the class schedule, with most classes being wait-listed, confirmed the cause of the low graduation rate.

I'm wondering: is this practice by the university to under-supply required classes legal?

I think quite a few colleges in the US are doing pretty much the same thing: they offer significantly smaller classes than necessary to allow their students to obtain degrees in a timely manner and profit from their own shortcomings due to the extended duration of each student's paid enrollment.

I am not a lawyer though, and aware that a layman's perception of fair doesn't always coincide with what's legal. In particular, the subject of fiduciary duties (which IMHO is the closest thing to a layman's definition of fair) is not quite obvious.

Answer 1

No – universities are not fiduciaries*

As mentioned in the answer by user6726, there is no universally accepted definition of what constitutes a fiduciary. However, Lord Justice Millett's explanation in the case of Bristol and West Building Society v Mothew [1998] is helpful (see my added emphasis in bold):

a fiduciary is someone who has undertaken to act for or on behalf of another in a particular manner in circumstances which give rise to a relationship of trust and confidence. The distinguishing obligation of the fiduciary is the obligation of loyalty.

While this is an English case, this description is true for all common-law countries (including the US). The bold appears to be the key point you are missing. Unlike a company director (with a duty of loyalty to shareholders) or a trustee (with a duty of loyalty to all beneficiaries), universities have no such general duty of loyalty.

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But they do have other duties

The fact that universities are not fiduciaries does not mean that they have no duty at all. Instead, their duties are contractual, statutory, and (potentially) tortious.

For example in England and Wales:

• Contractual: s49 of the Consumer Rights Act 2015 requires contracts for services between businesses and consumers to be performed with reasonable care and skill.

• Statutory: The Higher Education Act 2004 created a body for addressing students' complaints which universities will be legally bound to deal with.

• Tort: In University of Bristol v Abrahart [2024] the High Court acknowledged controversy as to the extent of universities' duty of care in tort law and refused to comment on the issue (as they found that duty had arisen elsewhere). This would be a less clear avenue than the above two routes.

While these examples are jurisdiction-specific, the overriding point remains that there is no fiduciary relationship. Instead, it is necessary to look to other potential duties that may arise (as the examples illustrate).

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^{_{*occasionally the courts have acknowledged the exceptional existence of a fiduciary relationship (for the purpose of a particular case only) based on the specific facts (eg Kelly v Baker & Braid [2022]). There is no clear reason why universities should be fiduciaries in the case of your question though. In that sense, this caveat is just for completeness.}}

Answer 2

A fiduciary duty only exists if a person is a fiduciary; we may take this to be a reasonable characteristic of the concept:

someone who has undertaken to act for and on behalf of another in a particular matter in circumstances which give rise to a relationship of trust and confidence

(In fact, there is no clear legal definition of a fiduciary, and courts prefer to determine that relationship on a case-by-case basis). If you construe the concept way broadly, then a waiter, bus driver, fishmonger, or good friend is a fiduciary, and they must by law act in ways that are in fact entirely outside of what is required of waiters, bus drivers, fishmongers, or good friends. So it is simply mistaken to think that a university is a fiduciary, in the way the term is used in business.

However, the three primary duties of a fiduciary are care, loyalty, and good faith. There is no duty to reach a particular percentage rate for 4-year graduations. The question of why most students do not graduate within 4 years is entirely off-topic for LSE – it is enough to note that even if you were to imagine a university being a fiduciary, no duty has been breached.