Indigenous woman Cindy Prior has been ordered to pay the legal costs of three QUT students after a failed racial vilification case.

Ms Prior has been pursuing a case against three students from the Queensland University of Technology over racist Facebook posts allegedly made by the men in 2013.

Ms Prior was seeking $250,000 in damages from the students and the university but last month the Federal Circuit Court threw the case against the students out – ruling it had “no reasonable prospect of success.”

Ms Prior is now facing an estimated $200,000 in legal costs for the three students but will continue an action for $250,000 against QUT over the way it handled the Facebook controversy.