Academic Complaints.

What would I complain about?

What is the first step?

The Office of the Independent Adjudicator for Higher Education (OIA) runs a free, independent and impartial scheme to review student complaints. They can only review complaints that have completed the university’s own formal complaints process. When a student complains to the OIA, they will check whether they can review the complaint under their rules and thengive the case to acase handler, who can gather more information from the students or the provider. They explore whether it’s possible to settle or mediate the case and then decide if your case is not justified, partially justified or justified.

Escalating to a Formal Complaint

If you have been unable to resolve your complaint informally then you may want to escalate this to a formal complaint. To submit a formal complaint you need to fill in the complaints form. You need to set out your concerns clearly and concisely, provide any evidence you have to support your complaint. Evidence may include; emails, medical evidence, timeline/dates of meetings, reports by a professional, witness statements, financial information etc. You can contact us for help with structuring your complaint if you get stuck.

All completed complaint forms should be submitted electronically to complaints@rhul.ac.uk. If you have a justified formal complaint, you should submit this as quickly as possible and within three months of the incident or action being complained about. Please do not wait until your results are published for fear that raising complaints at the time will adversely affect your grades; this is not the case and will only lead to possible regrets and dissatisfaction as retrospective complaints cannot be investigated unless in exceptional circumstances.

What happens next?

Once the Academic Investigations team receives a complaint form, they will consider the content and:

• forward the complaint to an appropriate Investigating Officer (see here for more information)
• provide an immediate written acknowledgement to the student(s) concerned
• inform any member(s) of staff concerned that a complaint has been received, including their line manager if appropriate.

The appropriate Investigating Officer will investigate your complaint, seeking relevant documentation from any member of staff and, at thier discretion, call a meeting at which you and any other persons involved may submit your views on the complaint. Following the investigation, you will be emailed the initial findings. They aim for a 60 day turn around, however in busy periods, this is likely to take longer.

What if I am unhappy with the Initial Findings?

If you are not for any reason satisfied with the content of the initial findings letter, you will be given 10 working days from the date of receiving the initial findings letter in which to let them know, and request a review. There are specific grounds for requesting a review- you can find out more about them here. 

If your request to review is accepted on one or more of the grounds stated, the Deputy Principal or nominee will consider the details of the case and all relevant documentation provided by the Investigating Officer. They will review the case, along with your response, and may, if necessary, take further advice.

Once the  investigation is complete, you will be sent a Completion of Procedures Letter confirming the College’s final decision on your complaint.

Still not satisfied?

Once all internal procedures have been exhausted the College will not investigate the matter any further.

If you are unsatisfied with the outcome, however, you can ask for your case to be reviewed by the OIA.

Office of the Independent Adjudicator for Higher Education (OIA)

This option only becomes available to you after the College’s internal procedures have been completed. The College will send you a Completion of Procedures Letter at the appropriate time, after which you will have 12 months in which to refer your case to the OIA, if you meet their grounds for investigation.

How can the Advice Centre help?

An Advisor can assist you all the way from an initial enquiry all the way through to the end of the process. This advice would involve, but is not limited to:

• Advising who to direct an informal complaint to
• Attending meetings with you for any informal complaints
• Assistance in completing and checking drafts of formal complaint forms
• Going through your initial findings with you
• Assistance in drafting your request for review
• Going through your final outcome with you
• Assistance in escalating your complaint to the OIA

Please get in touch by emailing us, or coming along to one of our drop-ins- information about these is available on the Events Calendar, just filter by "Advice" on the left hand side of the page.