Appeals
You have the right to appeal against decisions made by the Norwegian Directorate for Higher Education and Skills, cf. section 28 of the Public Administration Act. The complaint must be in written form and sent to the Directorate. The deadline for lodging an appeal is three weeks from when you have received the decision letter.
Recently edited : 2. January 2024The notice of appeal should at least:
- mention the administrative decision being appealed against.
- state the alteration desired in the administrative decision which is the object of the appeal.
If available, you should also include documentation not previously submitted to the Directorate that may substantiate your appeal.
What happens after you file an appeal against a decision?
After we have received your notice of appeal, we will check if all formal requirements for your appeal have been met. If we believe that the formal requirements of your complaint are not met, we will contact you. You will be given a short deadline to correct or complete your appeal. If you do not correct your appeal within the deadline, the appeal will be rejected.
Once the formal requirements have been met, we will reconsider your case in light of your comments and any additional documents. If, your appeal submissions are upheld, the Directorate will reverse previous decisions and make a new decision. If your appeal submissions are not upheld, the case will be forwarded to an appellate instance for further consideration.
There are external appellate instances for decisions concerning recognition of foreign education. You will be notified by us when your appeal is forwarded to the appellate instance.
If a decision is amended in favour of a party, the party has the right to apply for coverage of significant legal costs that have been necessary to amend the decision; Public Administration Act § 36. If you’ve had significant costs in connection with an appeal case, you must send the Directorate a request for reimbursement of legal costs.
The Directorate usually takes 2-4 months to process an appeal. When the appeal is sent to the appellate instance, the appeal case is processed by the Directorate. The appellate instance usually has a processing time of between 4-6 months. The total processing time can therefore be up to one year from when you submit an appeal until it has been finally processed by the appellate instance.