A federal appeals court ruled on Tuesday that 38 students who sued a for-profit college must allow an arbitrator to decide their claims of negligence and fraud against the institution.

A unanimous three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit overturned a federal district court’s ruling that the students’ tort claims against High-Tech Institute, in Missouri, were outside the scope of an arbitration clause in their enrollment agreement. That clause states that any dispute over the agreement would be decided by arbitration according to the rules of the American Arbitration Association.

The students had argued that a court should decide their charges, and that the arbitration clause was unenforceable because it appeared on the back of a two-page agreement in fine print, among other things.

The appeals court, however, ruled that the clause was not “hidden” and that High-Tech did not use high-pressure sales tactics to get students to sign the agreement. —Eric Kelderman