The aim of our Recommendations is to return the student to the position they were in before the circumstances of the complaint. This is why it is important for students to submit their Complaint Form as soon as possible: it gives us the best chance of achieving this. Sometimes we will recommend a practical remedy, a financial remedy, or a mixture of practical and financial remedies.
As a practical remedy we may recommend that the provider should:
- Re-run a process that was affected by procedural flaws or possible bias.
- Offer a fresh assessment opportunity.
- Re-mark work following the right assessment procedures.
- Offer an apology.
- Give the student the opportunity to return to a course.
- Offer mediation between the student and the provider.
These are just a few examples of the practical Recommendations we have made.
We can't interfere with a provider’s academic judgment, so we can't recommend directly that a piece of work be given a particular mark. But, in some cases our Recommendations may result in marks or classifications being changed. For example, we might recommend that a provider reconsider a student’s academic appeal, or the application of a penalty for late submission, and that process might result in the student’s mark or classification being changed.
Our Recommendations are directed at a provider, so we won't normally recommend that a particular member of staff should do something or that a provider should take action in relation to a member of staff.
We can't make Recommendations that a student should do something, but they may need to participate in some further action to make a remedy effective. For instance, if we recommend that the provider should re-mark some work, the student might need to provide another copy of it.
