In
Young v. Grand Canyon University, the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals held that the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia was wrong to compel arbitration of a student’s breach of contract and misrepresentation claims against a university, as federal regulation 34 C.F.R. § 685.300(e)-(f) prohibits a college or university that accepts federal student loan money from enforcing pre-dispute arbitration agreements when a student brings a “borrower defense claim.”
Plaintiff Donrich Young was enrolled in a doctoral degree program at Grand Canyon University in Arizona and took out federal loans to pay for the program. As part of Young’s admissions process, GCU required him to sign a comprehensive arbitration agreement, which stated that any dispute arising from his enrollment would be resolved by binding arbitration.