A woman who was denied entry to the University of Otago’s medical school four times has suffered further rejection to add to the list.
Kelly Alexandra Roe made ill-fated applications to study at the tertiary institution in 2010, 2017, 2018 and 2021, and claimed she had been unfairly treated on the latter three occasions.
She took her complaint to the High Court at Dunedin in October and although Justice David Gendall issued a judgement against her the following month, it was only made public this week.
Roe initially sought damages and the removal from office of “senior level officials” at the university in a statement of claim filed with the court.
But by last year’s hearing, which she attended by video link, those courses had been abandoned and instead she asked for a declaration that the University of Otago’s actions had breached the Education Act.
Roe emphasised she was not seeking entry to the programme but was taking on the legal battle “for other students in the future”.
The university declined the woman’s second attempt at entry to the medical course in 2017 on the basis there was a bar on multiple applications.
Roe appealed under the “exceptional reasons” category but was turned down again.
A similar scenario played out the following year.
While Justice Gendall accepted Roe was “eligible” to be considered for the programme, that did not mean the university must automatically enrol her.
“It appears the use of the term ‘eligibility’ ... may have caused Ms Roe some confusion. She seems to believe that her status as a ‘domestic adult’ guarantees that simply submitting an application will entitle her to enter the programme as of right,” the judge said.
That interpretation was wrong.
“The object of the [legislation] relating to institutions is to give them as much independence and freedom to make academic, operational, and management decisions as is consistent with the nature of the services they provide, the efficient use of natural resources, the national interest, and the demands of accountability,” he said.
Roe’s disgruntlement was not only with the University of Otago.
Last year she also faced off against the University of Auckland, University of Waikato, the New Zealand Vice-Chancellors Committee and the Auckland District Health Board, all without success.
