ANNUAL REPORT 2025 - Introduction from the Independent Adjudicator and the Chief Executive

Video transcription (PDF | 136kb)

Welcome to our Annual Report. 2025 was a year in which the importance of fair, independent, and effective redress for students was underlined once again. Higher education providers and students continued to face significant pressure. In that context, the OIA’s role matters not only in resolving individual complaints but in helping to build confidence that students will be heard, treated fairly, and considered carefully when things go wrong.

Demand for our ombuds service continued to grow during 2025. We received 4,234 complaints, the first time the number has exceeded 4,000 in a single year. We resolved 3,950 complaints, more than in any previous year. At the same time, we continued to improve timeliness, with more than 90% of complaints closed within six months and average case handling time reduced to 81 days.

These are important achievements because timeliness is not separate from fairness: for students and providers alike, a complaints process works best when it is accessible, proportionate and reaches clear outcomes without unnecessary delay.

Throughout the year, we remained focused on how the Scheme operates in practice for the people who use it. That meant continuing to strengthen accessibility, supporting students through what can often be a stressful process, and making sure our decision-making remained independent, impartial, and robust. It also meant using the insight from our casework more deliberately: sharing learning with providers, students’ unions, governments, regulators and sector bodies so that complaints can lead to wider improvement, not only individual resolution.

The wider context for this work is becoming more complex. Financial pressure across the higher education sector, changing expectations of regulation and consumer protection, and the evolving policy landscape in England and Wales all reinforce the need for a complaints scheme that is both trusted and fit for the future.

In 2026, we will take forward a significant programme of work to review our casework processes and to begin a comprehensive review of the Scheme itself that builds on the strong foundations outlined in this year’s report but prepares us for emerging need. Our aim is clear: to ensure that the Scheme remains fair, efficient, and easy to use, while preserving the independence and quality that are central to our role.
We are very grateful to colleagues across the OIA for the care, judgment and professionalism they bring to this work every day, and to the Board for its support and oversight. The progress reflected in this report is the result of a collective effort.

As we look ahead to 2026, we do so with a strong sense of purpose; we will keep improving the service we provide to students and providers, whilst enhancing how learning from complaints can continue to contribute to a fairer higher education sector.