ANNUAL REPORT 2024

Foreword by the Chair

Our vision is that students are always treated fairly. A shared commitment to fairness for students must be at the heart of a successful higher education sector that delivers for young people and for our wider society. The OIA has a unique and valuable role to play in this. In these challenging times it is vital to keep students’ experiences and wellbeing at the forefront of thinking about higher education.

Our Annual Report for 2024 reflects the breadth and depth of our work through the year. We handled more complaints than ever before, providing access to independent, impartial review of students’ unresolved complaints. Maintaining our focus on making our services accessible remains a priority for the organisation going forwards. We continued to work with students and their representative bodies, providers, sector organisations and governments to share learning from complaints and contribute to policy developments. Equality, diversity and inclusion is vital to the OIA and important to me and I am pleased to report that we are advancing our work in this area.

We successfully agreed and adopted our new Articles of Association and governance arrangements this year and these came into effect on 29 October 2024.

These achievements are made possible by the commitment and skill of colleagues across the organisation and on the Board. The results from the staff engagement survey highlight the strength of our organisation and the commitment of all our people. We are fortunate to have an excellent staff team, jointly led by Ben Elger, Chief Executive and Helen Megarry, Independent Adjudicator and an effective Board. I thank them all for their work and support over the year.