20Under our usual Rules, once we have accepted a complaint for review, we decide how to conduct the review. Rule 11.1 says, “When we have decided that the complaint is one which we can review, we will decide how to conduct the review and whether we need any more information.” That Rule applies to the Large Group Complaints process.
21Rule 12 sets out how we gather information during our review. Additional Rules 7, 8 and 9 change the way we do that. We decide what information and documents we will need, and we share information we receive with the students and the provider. We will not share information where to do so would be a breach of data protection legislation. We may share some information in anonymised or summarised form.
22Students and providers each have opportunities to make comments and representations in addition to answering any specific questions that we have. But for the Large Group Complaints process to work, we need to be proportionate and so we won’t expect every individual student to comment on all the information and documents we have shared. Although we will share all the information sent to us, we will draw attention to the information and documents that we think are relevant to our decision. We may ask students and the provider to direct their attention to specific information and documents in their responses. This would not prevent the provider or the students from drawing our attention to other information or documents that they considered important.
23Under our usual processes for individual student complaints, we may speak to the student by telephone or video call as well as communicating in writing. In the Large Group Complaint process, we may use online video conferencing technology to hold virtual meetings to speak with large groups of students together. We will usually record these meetings and make the recording available to the students and the provider. We may also make a written summary of the meeting available. Sometimes we may decide to hold meetings with students and representatives of the provider together.
