Case Summaries

The student appealed against this decision. They described a series of problems at the beginning of the academic year in getting their student card to work and in receiving correct timetable information. The student said that they had spoken to a student helpdesk to resolve the issues. They had attended all their classes, had submitted all of the required work and had achieved good marks so far.

The provider rejected the student’s appeal, saying it was not satisfied that the student had provided evidence that there had been problems with their student card and registration. The provider said that the student should have asked individual academic staff to record their attendance in classes. It asked some of the academic staff if they could recall the student being present, but academic staff were not able to confirm this.

The student complained to us. We upheld the complaint (we decided it was Justified). The provider had not looked for any information about the student’s card and whether there was a record of the student seeking advice from its helpdesk. The provider could not show that the student had been advised to ensure that academic staff made an additional record of their attendance. The academic staff who had been asked about the student’s attendance had noted that much of the delivery was in lectures with a very large number of students in attendance and they could not recall individual attendance accurately.

We recommended that the provider should consider the student’s appeal afresh, having gathered more relevant information about the accuracy of its records of attendance for this student.