Case Summaries

Student wellbeing - CS042303

Case summary April 2023 | Not Justified

A student was completing a year studying at a university in another country as part of their undergraduate degree. Towards the end of this year the student was told that the modules they had chosen could not count towards their qualification.

The student had an existing mental health condition and became very distressed by this news. They failed some assessments and stayed abroad longer than they had originally planned to complete some additional work and resits. The student became more unwell and took a break from their studies. They complained to the provider where they were studying their degree about what had happened at the overseas provider.

The provider upheld the student’s complaint. It said that there had been things that the student had a responsibility to do which would have lessened some of the problems. But it acknowledged that it should have done more to support the student and to manage the study abroad partnership. It put in place some changes to stop this happening in the future. It apologised to the student, reimbursed the student’s additional accommodation costs, and offered compensation of £2,500 for the distress caused. It also offered to waive the remainder of the student’s tuition fees when they returned to study.

The student complained to us. The student had a valid complaint but the provider had offered a reasonable remedy, so we didn’t uphold the student’s complaint to us (we decided the complaint to us was Not Justified on the basis that the provider had made a reasonable offer).