The University of California appeals a court ruling on tuition hikes

Organized medicine has filed an amicus brief on behalf of students who relied on a promise of no boosts in tuition.

By Myrle Croasdale, AMNews staff. June 18, 2007.

The University of California may have to give back $33.8 million to 9,000 students who attended its professional schools in 2003, including 2,571 medical students.

In 2006, a California Superior Court judge found the university system in breach of contract for raising tuition and ordered it to pay back the students the fee hikes plus interest.

The university is appealing the decision, prompting the American Medical Association/State Medical Societies Litigation Center and the California Medical Assn. in May to file a joint friend-of-the-court brief on students' behalf.

"The University of California explicitly promised its medical students that they would not increase tuition," said Rebecca J. Patchin, MD, AMA secretary and California anesthesiologist and pain medicine specialist. "They went back on their word and allowed repeated increases, disrupting the students' financial planning and jeopardizing their ability to continue their studies."

For Janet Lee, MD, the named medical student plaintiff, tuition jumped from $5,000 to $12,673 per year while she attended the University of California, San Francisco, School of Medicine. The increases pushed her student loans to $60,000, according to the AMA, double what she would have borrowed.

The lawsuit, which is winding its way through California's Court of Appeals, has its roots early in this decade, when state revenue shortfalls triggered steep budget cuts, including education. In 2003, the UC system, which includes five medical schools, raised tuition. Students in professional degree programs saw immediate hikes of $400 to $1,700 per semester. One tuition hike was retroactive, with students receiving a second bill for the 2003 spring semester after many had paid their original bill in full.