Tips about bringing a complaint

Before you complete the Scheme Application Form

1. Read our Guide to check that your complaint is about something we can look at under our Rules.
2. Check that your university participates in the Scheme.
3. Use our 'Complaints Wizard' to check whether we can look at your complaint at this time.
4. We can provide information about our service in different formats and adapt the way we communicate with you depending on your needs. Please contact us to let us know what your particular needs are, and we will try to help.

Filling in the Scheme Application Form

1. Provide as much relevant information as possible on the Scheme Application Form.
2. Explain briefly what you think the university has done wrong and why the final decision of the university is unsatisfactory to you. Tell us what you would like to be done about it – be realistic.
3. Don’t forget to sign your Scheme Application Form. If you are sending your Scheme Application Form by email, please scan and attach the Form, so that we have your signature.
4. If you appoint a representative to handle your complaint you must still sign the Scheme Application Form.

Sending us your Scheme Application Form

1. We must receive your signed Scheme Application Form in our Office within three months of the date of the Completion of Procedures Letter .
2. Keep proof of posting or sending your Scheme Application Form to us.
3. Send us a copy of the Completion of Procedures Letter with your Scheme Application Form. (If you do not have one, there is a space on the Form to say why not.)
4. If your Form is received after the three month deadline, we may consider it to be out of time. If there are exceptional reasons why you were unable to send us your Form on time, enclose a covering letter (explaining these reasons) and any relevant evidence (for example, a medical certificate).

Sending us other documents

1. We send all the information that you send to us to the university. Before you send us anything containing personal data of another person, please make sure that you have their permission for this to be sent to the OIA and the university.
2. If you wish any documents to be kept confidential and not forwarded to the university, please make this very clear and identify any such documents. Please also explain why you wish the documents to be kept confidential. We will consider your reasons, but please be aware that as we are an open and transparent Scheme we may then not be able to look at certain aspects of your complaint.
3. Please enclose only relevant information. Do not include any duplicates or long email trails that are not relevant.
4. Please highlight important sections of the regulations or documents.
5. Include a list of the full names of all the people involved in your complaint and who they are (for example, your Tutor or the Head of Department).
6. Please put all your documents in date order (newest correspondence at the front of the file).
7. All documents sent to us need to be photocopied so please do not bind them or put anything in plastic sleeves. It is quicker for us to process your documents if they are hole-punched and held together with treasury tags, rather than in files or folders. Do not staple documents or use post-it notes: include a separate sheet if you need to make notes. If you need to separate sections, use a separate sheet or dividers.
8. Send us copies, rather than original documents. We do not normally return your documents to you.

General

1. If you change your address or contact details please let us know.
2. Do not let the fact that you have brought a complaint to the OIA affect the course of action you would otherwise take: in other words do not assume that we will uphold your complaint.
3. Please be patient, your complaint will not be resolved immediately, on average it will take approximately six months.
4. Remember that we are independent and we are therefore unable to give you advice or discuss the merits of your complaint with you.