Can universities require computer science students to develop software for free?

Question

At my university (it is a public Florida university), one of the core computer science courses required for the degree involves a group project, and the class is divided up into a dozen or so teams, each with their own project. This is fairly common.

The questionable thing is this: local companies each pay the department a few thousand dollars to have the students develop their software for them, since it is cheaper than hiring professionals. The students, who are paying tuition, don't get a cut of this money. While this can be an ethical debate (they are getting experience, but they are paying to work for free, etc.), I would like to know about the legality of this.

Answer 1

It depends on the agreement between the parties.

In analyzing the debate between @Moo and @Greendrake in the comments to the answer by @Greendrake, it's clear that any contract between the parties will control. And in the absence of any agreement to the contrary, the student owns the copyright.

Controlling agreements could include any tuition agreement, scholarship grants, admissions, enrollment or application agreement at the university level and, at the course level, a simple waiver would be sufficient to assign intellectual property rights.

@Greendrake seems to be arguing no IP assignment is valid unless it is accompanied by a standalone payment from the university to the student. That is an incorrect interpretation of contract law. In this case, the entirety of the contract, including the education services provided by the university, would serve as sufficient consideration for the contract to be binding on both parties. Evidence of the sufficiency of consideration would be the agreement itself and the behavior of the parties, including the payment of any tuition by the student.

Answer 2

The university certainly can, as part of its study programme, require students to develop software (for free).

However, as the students are not hired to write the software, they own the copyright.

The university violates that copyright by selling the software to third parties.

The students can legally require the university to stop doing that, or to agree to pay them a % of the revenue.

One can argue that transferring the copyright / IP to the university could be part of the student's consideration (on top of any tuition fees they pay). The problem with this is that, whilst the students have to produce software to get a pass mark, they do not have to do it contract-wise: the university won't have a legal stand to sue the students for damages should they not deliver the software. Yes they will fail the course but they will still fulfil their contract obligations. Therefore, the software/IP "consideration" here is illusory. An illusory consideration is not good one, hence it is not part of the contract.