Student Complaints Procedure

12.10 Procedural Introduction

12.10.1 We encourage you to speak to the School, individual or Service that you would like to complain about by accessing the Local Resolution level of the Complaints Procedure. We also encourage you to seek advice from the Students’ Union Advice Centre and/or one of the Student Conciliators because they have experience of resolving complaints. Conciliation is also available at the Local Resolution level, should you wish to consult someone impartial.

12.10.2 The Students’ Union Advice Centre can provide you with independent advice and you can be supported by one of their advisers at any level of the student complaints procedure.

12.10.3 There are deadlines within this procedure and we expect you to keep to these unless you have compelling independent evidence to show why you could not do this. We are also expected to meet our deadlines but there will occasionally be times when we are unable to do this for good reason, for example, due to a complex investigation requiring more time. If this is the case, we will let you know why and keep you informed of progress. 

12.10.4 If you are complaining on behalf of a group of students you must attach a sheet to the student complaints form, containing the names of the students who form part of the group raising the complaint. You should ensure that the members of the group have agreed the content of the complaint and any supporting evidence that is sent to us. The investigator will send an email to all complainants to confirm the matter is being considered as a group complaint but will then liaise with the nominated student, put forward by the group. Any member of the group can withdraw from the complaint at any time. 

12.11 Local Resolution Level 

12.11.1 Before making a formal complaint you should speak to the School, individual, or service directly involved with a view to finding a positive and quick resolution. Most concerns/complaints can be resolved informally and where possible, should be dealt with as soon after the issue has arisen. Please refer to 12.8 for expectations on timings. 

12.11.2 We provide support to help you raise your concerns as soon as they arise.  To initiate this process:

• You can speak to your Personal Academic Tutor, Subject Area Lead, Course Leader, Module Leader, Supervisor, or any colleague within the School or Service that you feel able to discuss the concern with, in order to seek a resolution.
• For information and contact details of staff to raise your initial concerns with, please see our Complaints Directory.  
• If you are unsure whom to approach to resolve your concern quickly, you can complete and submit the Student Concern form. This form will give you the option to summarise your concern(s) and depending on the nature and area of your concern it will direct you to the appropriate member of staff who may be able to discuss and resolve your concern within 15 working days of submitting the form. 
• Alternatively, the University has a number of Student Conciliators and you can discuss your complaint with them in confidence. They are impartial to your complaint and will help you decide the best way to resolve the problem quickly and support you in doing that.

12.11.3 You should normally receive a response/resolution, providing reasons for the outcome, within 15 working days of the date that your concern/complaint was raised. However, sometimes cases may unavoidably take longer to investigate. If this is the case, you will be kept informed of the reason for the delay and a revised timescale will be given.

12.12 Formal Resolution Level

12.12.1 If you are unhappy with the informal resolution of your concern/complaint, or if the nature of the complaint is not appropriate to be resolved informally, you should complete Formal Resolution Complaints Form within 5 working days of you receiving your Local Resolution outcome. You must provide us with all the relevant details of your complaint, including any supporting evidence you would like to submit. Where possible, you should also tell us the proposed outcome you would like in order to resolve your complaint.

12.12.2 If you feel your complaint cannot be resolved informally and you are unable to use engage in the Local Resolution level of the process, you should make your complaint at the Formal Resolution level as soon as possible. This means normally no later than one calendar month of the incident which has caused you to complain, unless you can provide compelling independent evidence which shows why you could not raise the complaint sooner. Please refer to Section 12.8 for expectations on the timings of complaints.

12.12.3 Where for good reason you are not able to engage with the procedure and you would like someone to complain on your behalf, you will need to provide us with your written authority by emailing us from your university email account to confirm who will be making the complaint.

12.12.4 Once your formal complaint is received, Registry will review the complaint and assign an independent investigator who will, as part of their investigation, consider all information provided by you. They may also seek other information such as email correspondence to help inform their investigation and request meetings with others involved in the complaint. 

12.12.5 If you are complaining on behalf of a group of students you must confirm within the form the names of the students who form part of the group raising the complaint. You should ensure that the members of the group have agreed the content of the complaint and any supporting evidence that is sent to us. The investigator will send an email to all complainants to confirm the matter is being considered as a group complaint but will then liaise with the nominated student, put forward by the group. 

12.12.6 If a meeting is required as part of the investigation, you will be offered an in-person or Teams option. Either the investigator, or a note taker they appoint, will take a record of the meeting and provide this to you before you receive your formal outcome. You will have the opportunity to suggest amendments to the meeting record, if you feel there are any points of clarification or significant omissions. A separate amended copy will be kept on record if this is the case. If you attend a meeting, you may wish to bring a supporter with you; this could be an SU Advisor or a friend or family member.

12.12.7 You should normally receive a response, providing reasons for the outcome, within 20 working days of the date that we received your formal complaint. However, complex cases may unavoidably take longer to investigate. If this is the case, you will be kept informed of the reason for the delay and a revised timescale will be given. 

12.12.8 Following investigation, the investigator will either; 
•    Seek to resolve the complaint informally (through conciliation, or following further enquiries if it was also considered at the Local Resolution level for example); 
•    Uphold the complaint in full or in part and explain how, when and who will implement any remedy; 
•    Deem the complaint as ‘not upheld’ 
•    Dismiss the complaint if it is deemed to be malicious or unfounded and refer the matter for further action if appropriate. 

12.12.9 If you are satisfied with the outcome to your complaint, you must inform the investigator of this in writing by email. If you accept the outcome to your complaint this will be in full and final settlement of all issues raised in your complaint. 

12.14 Review Level

12.14.1 If you are unhappy with the  response to your request for a Formal Resolution you can request a review by emailing studentcomplaints@hud.ac.uk no later than 10 working days of the date you were issued with the formal resolution outcome. 

12.14.2 For your review request to be considered you must complete the review part of your complaints form, your proposed resolution and provide evidence where possible to demonstrate at least one of the following grounds; 

• there was a procedural irregularity in the way we considered your complaint at the Formal Resolution level;
• the decision we reached at the Formal Resolution level was unreasonable in light of the evidence provided;
• you have submitted new supporting information that, for a good reason, could not have been provided when you submitted a request for Formal Resolution and would also have materially affected the outcome

12.14.3 Your request for Review will be considered by a member of University staff who has not been involved in the previous stages of this procedure and their decision will be approved by a Pro Vice Chancellor. We will issue a Completion of Procedures letter, providing reasons for the outcome, no later than 20 working days from the date the review request was received. 

12.14.4 At this level there will not be a new investigation of your complaint and you should not submit new arguments or supporting information, unless you have a very good reason for doing so, which you can support with independent evidence as per the grounds detailed above in 12.14.2. If you wish you to raise a new complaint or a new element of your complaint, you must raise a new complaint in order for it to be investigated fully.

12.14.5 If your complaint review is upheld or partially upheld, the following may be offered to you:

• A remedy offered at the earlier stages may be offered to you again;
• You may have a new remedy;
• it may be investigated again at an earlier level if there were procedural issues with the investigation into the complaint. 

12.14.6 If your complaint review is not upheld:

• You may wish to discuss the outcome with the SU Advice Centre who can independently guide you through the decision;
• You may request an external review of the Review decision.

12.14.7 If you are satisfied with the outcome to your complaint, you must inform the reviewer of this in writing by email. If you accept the outcome to your complaint this will be in full and final settlement of all issues raised in your complaint.

12.14.8 The decision of the Pro-Vice Chancellor will be final and will bring to an end the University’s internal procedure. There are no further levels and we will issue you with a completion of procedures letter at this stage. 

12.15 OIA: Independent review of student complaint outcome

12.15.1 You can request an independent review of our final Review level decision. You will need to send your completion of procedures letter to the Office of the Independent Adjudicator (OIA) within 12 months of the date of the completion of procedures letter.