Guidance to help you consider complaints raised by students (informally or formally) in line with the Student Complaints Procedure.
Faculties, schools and divisions that provide services to students must inform students clearly about who to contact in the first instance if they have a complaint.
If a student wishes to raise an informal complaint about:
If a student raises a complaint with you, you should explain that you are not able to take forward the complaint on their behalf and that you will refer it appropriately. You can encourage the student to seek advice from Bristol SU Academic Service to take forward their complaint.
Students must raise a complaint within 30 days of the matter they want to complain about, unless there is good reason for not doing so.
If a student raises a concern informally within the 30 day time period, they can raise a formal complaint later if they do so within 30 days of:
or
or
Where a current student is raising a concern about a sexual assault or other potentially criminal behaviour they should be referred immediately to the Student Resolution Service (SRS) (srs-casework@bristol.ac.uk) irrespective of the time limits involved.
If a concern is raised outside the 30-day period you should refer the student to the Late Complaint Form, asking them to complete it and send it to university-secretary@bristol.ac.uk setting out the reason for the delay.
Where complaints are raised marginally outside of the 30-day period, you can use your judgement to accept the complaint without referring the student to the Late Complaint form.
Things to consider when complaints narrowly miss the 30-day deadline:
In all cases, remind students that support is offered through Student Wellbeing:
If you have any concerns you can get advice from the Secretary’s Office (secretarys-office@bristol.ac.uk) or from the SCMM (student-complaints@bristol.ac.uk).
Aim to acknowledge receipt of the informal complaint within 7 days explaining what steps you are taking to consider and/or resolve it.
Where possible, seek to resolve any informal complaint within 21 days of receipt. You may wish to meet with the student to discuss their complaint to clarify the nature of their concerns and how the student wants to resolve the complaint.
It is your responsibility to deal with complaints consistently.
Consider whether the complaint raised is the result of a misunderstanding. It may be that the student needs further information about the matter raised.
Consider any student or staff wellbeing issues – both for the person raising the complaint and any person who has been named. Student support is offered through Student Wellbeing. Remind the student what is on offer and how to access support. Staff support is accessed through the Employee Assistance Programme;
If an informal complaint cannot be resolved within 21 days you should:
or
Formal complaints are raised with the SCMM who will refer the complaint to the appropriate person to review at the Local Stage of the Student Complaints Procedure.
The University uses the overall time period set out in the Office of the Independent Adjudicator for Higher Education OIA(HE) Good Practice framework for the consideration of formal student complaints.
Normally, time period for considering a formal complaint is:
Where a student is not responding to any requests, you can remind the student that your aim is to resolve the Local Stage complaint within 30 days and that you need their cooperation to do so.
If the SCMM refers a complaint to you for review at the Local Stage of the Student Complaints process, they will send you the complaint form and any accompanying documents from the student and from staff members who considered the matter informally.
You will be asked to make a decision at the Local Stage i.e. consider whether you are able to resolve all or part of the complaint, and to do so within 30 days of receipt of the complaint form and accompanying documents.
The aim of the Local Stage is to seek to resolve the complaint. Proposing a resolution does not necessarily mean that you consider that the complaint should be upheld in whole or in part, only that you are offering a solution to the issues raised.
If the complaint was raised outside the 30-day time period, the SCMM will confirm that it has been accepted.
Consider if the complaint has been raised in time. Issues relating to time will normally have been resolved before you are asked to consider a complaint at the Local Stage, but if you have any queries relating to this, raise them with the SCMM.
Ensure that you have all the information you need. In some cases, you may be able to resolve the complaint on the documents provided, but in most you will need to investigate.
Consider whether the complaint is clear. It may be helpful either to write to the student seeking clarification on specific points or to meet with the student (and any representative) to ensure that you understand the complaint raised.
At any stage of the procedure it is the responsibility of the person dealing with the complaint to keep the student informed of the progress of the complaint.
You should first write to the student to confirm that you have received their complaint and that you will be considering at the Local Stage of the Student Complaints Procedure. You should confirm when they can expect to hear from you next.
When a complaint may take longer for good reason, such as absence of staff, delay in a response from a student to a query, complexity of the matter etc., it is important to:
How you should investigate a complaint will depend upon the matters being investigated and the information available at the start of the information gathering exercise. Below are some suggestions of how you might investigate, but you must use your own judgement based on the nature of the complaint. If you would like further advice, contact the Secretary’s Office (secretarys-office@bristol.ac.uk).
Make sure that you understand all parts of the complaint, and if you do not, then contact the student with a summary of your understanding and ask them to confirm whether you have understood correctly. Once you have this confirmation you can proceed with the investigation.
Speak to anyone you think can provide relevant additional information, including the student, faculty, school or division. Take notes and confirm with each person in writing via email that you have understood their account correctly. This includes information given orally, which is considered as evidence.
It is important to keep these records because if a student is dissatisfied with an outcome at the Local Stage, you will be asked to supply a note of (or exchange of emails) confirming any oral evidence on which you relied together with any additional information supplied by the school, faculty or division to make your decision. The student is entitled to see this information at the University Stage of the Student Complaints Procedure.
Identify which University policies or procedures may be relevant to the complaint raised.
Consider what other documentation may assist with your investigation and where it could be obtained from.
Refer to any relevant guidance including the OIA(HE) guidance “Putting Things right”.
Once you have collated and considered all the relevant information, you can make your decision and send a Local Stage decision letter to the student.
Your letter should include:
If your proposed resolution includes financial compensation seek advice from the Secretary’s Office on the information that you must give to the student (and will require from the student) to be able to make any payment.
You should also:
We do not currently have a complaint process to address complaints from members of the public or others.
If you receive a complaint from a third party which does not appear to come from someone connected with a student, where the complaint is about a student or a matter which may be in the public domain, please contact the Secretary’s Office for advice on any response. It may not be appropriate to respond, particularly where any response would involve the disclosure of personal data of either a student or a member of staff.
If you receive a complaint from a third party which looks as though it is a complaint about a service which the University has given directly to that third party, please refer it to the head of the division who provides that service.
If you receive a complaint from someone on behalf of a student, for example, from a parent, relative, or close personal friend (Supporter) you should not respond to the Supporter in any way that reveals that a particular individual is a student at the University, until you have received the student’s consent. This applies even if the Supporter has copied in the student to their complaint.
You can:
Students are entitled to be represented if they wish to raise a complaint and can nominate their Supporter as their representative.
If a student confirms that they want their Supporter to represent them in making a complaint, you should explain to the student and to the Supporter the role of a representative, and emphasise that it will be important for the student to play a part in the procedure rather than leave it solely to their representative.
If you would like any advice on responding to a student’s Supporter, contact the Secretary’s Office.
You should not consider an informal or formal complaint from a student if you:
The SCMM aims to ensure that at the Local Stage an appropriate person considers any student complaint but may not be aware of any personal connections that you have. Please notify the SCMM immediately if you consider for any reason that there may be a conflict which would mean that you should not consider the student’s complaint.
We will not tolerate unacceptable behaviour from those raising a complaint or from a Supporter who is raising a complaint on a student’s behalf. In accordance with the Student Complaints Procedure, if the University finds that a complainant’s behaviour is unacceptable, it will:
If the complainant wants to seek a review of the decision, they should state this in writing to the University Secretary (email university-secretary@bristol.ac.uk) within 10 days of the date of the decision. The University Secretary will confirm their decision in writing, normally within 10 days.
Inform your Head of Faculty Administration or if you are a member of a division, inform your line manager.
Students can understandably be emotional when raising complaints, but we do not expect you to tolerate unacceptable behaviour.
A Head of Faculty Administration or a Division may seek advice relating to a complainant or their Supporters behaviour from: