Review of Institutional Complaints and Appeals Procedures in ...

Awareness of procedures
When discussing complaints and appeals procedures it is important to ensure that students
are aware of the mechanisms and that they are easily understandable. One of the precepts in
the QAA Code of Practice is that “institutions make publicly available easily comprehensible
information on their complaints and appeals procedures.”
In response to the questions “How aware would you say students are of the complaints and
appeals procedures at your institution?” no one replied that they believed their students to be
fully aware of the procedures with 13% replying “not at all”, and 61% replying only “slightly
aware”.
Chart A: How aware would you say students are of the complaints and appeals
procedures at your institution?
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
Fully aware
Reasonably
aware
Slightly
aware
Not at all
Institutions use a number of mechanisms to publicise their procedures. The most regularly
cited, by almost all respondents, was having the information on their institution’s website, but
there were concerns that this may be hard to find. Other highly cited mechanisms included
information in the student handbook or being available from registry.
Other less frequently cited responses that are also used is distributing the information at
enrolment/registration; making it available in academic departments; via the personal tutor
system and supporting the students’ union to publicise them.
At Brunel University a number of departments email their students at exam time about their
procedures. This reminds students of the regulations at an appropriate time, rather than just
at the beginning of term when students can be overwhelmed by information. They also break
their regulations down into bite-sized chunks to make them more accessible.
The issue of extenuating circumstances is an interesting one. Many institutions expect
students to inform the institution of any extenuating circumstances before the assessment. At
Aston University, for example, students must provide information about extenuating
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