Case Summaries

Postgraduate students - CS062407

Case summary June 2024 | Partly Justified

A student was registered on a full-time MRes programme. At the end of two years of study, students who met certain academic requirements could be considered for transfer onto a PhD programme.

During the student’s second year the provider learned that the student was also registered at another provider and was studying online towards another postgraduate qualification. Studying for two full-time qualifications at the same time was not allowed under the provider’s regulations.

The provider took action under its disciplinary procedures. It held a meeting with the student to discuss the situation. It decided to allow the student to complete their MRes studies but said that it would not consider the student for the PhD programme.

The student appealed this decision. The student said they didn’t know that studying for an online qualification elsewhere was forbidden and felt that the provider should have made this clearer during the admissions process. They also said that they had not had an opportunity to discuss options, and that they would have preferred to have withdrawn from the online course at the other provider. They had now done so. The student believed that the provider had made its mind up before the disciplinary process had been completed.

The provider rejected the appeal and the student complained to us.

We partly upheld the student’s complaint (we decided it was Partly Justified). The provider’s regulations were clear that dual registration was not allowed. But we did not think the provider had operated its disciplinary process in a transparent and fair way. The breach of the regulations was a serious one that could have resulted in the immediate termination of the student’s registration and so the student should have been given an opportunity to give their views at a disciplinary panel. The provider had not given the student the option of withdrawing from the other course and it had not given clear reasons to explain why it had decided to apply the sanction it did.

We recommended that the provider should apologise for the errors in its process and offer the student compensation in recognition of the distress this had caused. The provider agreed that it would consider the student for transfer onto the PhD programme.