In this section we talk about some of the work we did in 2023 to continually improve what we do.
Our approach to our case-handling process
For some students bringing their complaint to us is not easy. Often the issues students complain about matter a lot to them and can have a big impact on their lives. Some students have been through deeply upsetting experiences, and some have significant ongoing difficulties. We approach the developments we make to our casework processes with this in mind. This also supports the efficiency and effectiveness of our casework.
It can be helpful to a student to discuss their complaint with us at an early stage. During the year we offered students a conversation when we received their complaint, in addition to opportunities to speak with us later in our process, to help them to better understand the approach we were likely to take and what we could and couldn’t do.
We also identified at an earlier stage, complaints where the student may benefit from having their complaint handled by a single case-handler throughout our review process.
Our Commitment to Kindness in practice
In 2023, following our adoption of a Commitment to Kindness in 2022, we continued to develop the ways we embed kindness across our organisation and put kindness into practice in our approach to casework. We looked at how showing kindness in difficult situations, with people who may be distressed or vulnerable, can be complex. For example, we often need to balance expressing empathy with a student with the need to manage their expectations. We also thought about how we may be able to minimise the impact of a disappointing decision by thinking about when and how we communicate it to the student.
We hope that by doing what we can to make sure that students know that they have been heard and that we understand how they feel, we can make a difference to their experience of using our Scheme.
A student brought a complaint to us about a number of issues at their provider, which had caused them distress and anxiety. The provider had upheld their complaint and offered them compensation, a refund of tuition fees and the opportunity to restart the course. We checked that the provider was willing to keep the offer open throughout our review and confirmed this to the student. We decided that the complaint to us was Not Justified because the provider had made a reasonable offer to resolve the student’s complaint. In our Complaint Outcome, we used wording to communicate our decision more kindly, making it clear that our decision did not mean that we thought the student’s complaint to the provider was not valid. We received positive feedback from the student to say that they understood the reasoning behind our decision.
Both students and providers benefit from our processes being as streamlined as we can make them while maintaining fairness. We are conscious of the pressures in many providers’ complaints and appeals teams and we continued to look for opportunities to minimise the work involved in responding to a complaint. For example, where it was clear early on from the information provided by the student that we would not uphold a complaint, we offered the provider the option of not responding to the complaint.
During 2023 we made significant progress with reducing the time that cases are with us. We built on our collaborative working across teams to further improve efficient allocation, progression and resolution of cases. We also benefited from improved functionality in our new IT system which we introduced at the start of the year.
It is important for students and providers to have easy and secure access to information about their complaints. In early 2023 we launched our upgraded MyOIA portal, which offers enhanced security and more autonomy for providers and students to access and upload information to a case file. Following its launch, we continued to ask providers and students for their feedback and we were grateful for their insights. These helped us ensure that our guidance for users was clear and effective.
“I really appreciate being told [of the changes to our systems] now. I would’ve worried if the email was genuine and then worried about my data. It’s very considerate of you all. Thank you!”
Call from a student, following our communication about the MyOIA portal
“As a wider point, please could you feedback that the OIA portal, for me, works exceptionally well, and is much improved over the previous process. It’s a much cleaner, clearer approach to providing documentation.”
Feedback from a provider about the improvements to the portal
Students’ experience of our service
In 2023, we continued to give students the opportunity to tell us their experiences of our service, by inviting feedback during and at the end of our process through surveys, through the feedback form on our website, and through our engagement with students during our case-handling process.
Some students are very satisfied with our service. A high proportion of those who respond to our surveys say that we have treated them with respect and politeness. Others express concerns, most commonly around the extent and nature of our remit, understanding our decisions and processes, or a perception of a lack of impartiality.
We want all students who use our service to have a positive experience of it, and while many students are very satisfied, it is important and valuable for us to understand what we could do better for those students that have not experienced it in that way. Students who are unhappy with their experience can make a complaint about our service. In 2023, we received 52 service complaints, compared to 57 in 2022.
Some of the complaints we received raised issues about the merits of the student’s complaint about their provider, but we can’t consider those issues under our service complaints procedure. Where the concerns were about our service, the issues raised were generally similar to the concerns expressed in the wider student feedback.
The complaints we receive about our service give us the opportunity to put right something if it has gone wrong. The concerns raised also provide us with valuable feedback about some students experience our process. Complaints about our service are considered separately from casework, and learning is then fed back in, for example it contributed to our work around how we more proactively support students through our process.
“Thank you very much for the prompt and kind response. I’ll get the documents to you as soon as possible, but do appreciate the flexibility and understanding.”
“Can I just thank you for your professionalism and hope you are successful with the university and we can bring this issue to a close...”
Advisory Panels
Our two Advisory Panels enable us to access expertise and advice on issues related to our casework. Each panel met twice in the year to discuss topics of interest. Our case-handling staff can also refer issues to Panel members outside of meetings for their expert input. The meetings provided valuable insight into issues in the sector and we were able to share information about our approach. The Panels do not see or make decisions on individual complaints.
Higher Education Advisory Panel
The Higher Education Advisory Panel (HEAP) discussed a wide range of issues including the continuing impact of cost-of-living pressures on students and steps providers are taking to help, the effect of industrial action on students, continuing increases some providers are seeing in complaints, appeals and disciplinary issues, the challenges and issues arising from sexual misconduct and harassment cases and how providers are navigating these, ongoing challenges around mental health, and artificial intelligence (AI) and misconduct.
The Panel reflects the diversity of our Scheme membership and includes student advisers and a balance of administrators and academics from providers.
HEAP members during 2023
- Zoë Allman, Associate Dean (Academic), De Montfort University
- Claire Blanchard, Partnership Team Leader, University of Wales Trinity Saint David
- Dr Mark Hollingsworth, Deputy Chief Operating Officer, City, University of London
- Charlotte Levy, Registrar, Royal Academy of Dance
- Dr Nathan Morris, Head of the Student Complaints and Academic Casework Team, University of Warwick
- Carmen Neagoe, Head of Educational and Teaching Support, Cambridge Judge Business School, University of Cambridge
- Melissa Reilly, Advice and Response Manager (Safeguarding, Gender-based Violence and Hate), The University of Manchester
- Adrian Spence, Head of Advice, Wellbeing and Accommodation Support, Aston Students’ Union, Birmingham
- Cat Turhan, Director of Membership Services, Imperial College Union
- Nicholas Whitehouse, Coordinator, Mixed Economy Group of Colleges
Disability Experts Panel
Our Disability Experts Panel (DEP) is made up of disability practitioners and experts in disability matters from specialist organisations and higher education providers. From time to time we refresh the membership of the Panel to bring in different expertise and in 2023 we ran a successful recruitment round and appointed three new members.
The Panel discussed issues including access arrangements for online assessments, academic integrity, accommodation, continuing pressure on disability services, uncertainty around future arrangements for DSA assessments, the difficulties disabled students can face in obtaining supporting evidence from GPs, the Disabled Student Commitment and the duty of care debate in the higher education sector.
DEP Members during 2023
- Harriet Cannon, Disability Advisory Team Manager, University of Leeds
- Antony Chuter, Elected Trustee, Pain UK
- Martin McLean, Education and Training Policy Advisor (Post-14), National Deaf Children’s Society
- Lucy Merritt, Education Policy Manager, Thomas Pocklington Trust (from 1 July 2023)
- John Milligan, Team Leader, Visually Impaired Children, Young People & Families, Virtual School Sensory Support; Representative from VIEW (to 31 July 2023)
- Laura Nettell, Interim Head of Disability Services, University of Gloucestershire (from 1 July 2023)
- Levi Pay, Director and Principal Consultant, Plinth House (to 31 January 2023)
- Phil Scarffe, Head of Student Welfare, De Montfort University (from 1 July 2023)
- Alice Speller, Chief Executive Officer, National Association of Disability Practitioners (NADP)
“Thank you very much for today’s phone conversation. You were a great help and have provided a lot of clarity on the process.”
