Case summary October 2024 | Partly Justified
An undergraduate student complained to their provider about several aspects of their course and said they hadn’t received the experience described in the provider’s prospectus. The provider did not uphold the student’s complaint, but it offered them £250 as compensation for delays in its handling of the complaint.
Case summary October 2024 | Justified
A first-year undergraduate student was withdrawn from their course because they didn’t pass their resit attempt at a core module. They submitted an academic appeal and explained that their performance had been negatively impacted by issues related to module delivery and a lack of support from their academic personal tutor.
Case summary October 2024 | Partly Justified
A postgraduate student complained to their provider about the tuition fees they were charged after returning from a leave of absence. They said the fees office had initially told them no further fees were due. They thought that the total fee amount they were being asked to pay for the course was incorrect.
Case summary October 2024 | Not Justified
A postgraduate student complained to their provider about the fees they had been charged for their course. The student explained that the unconditional offer letter the provider had sent to them before they joined the course said the fees were £0. They didn’t agree that they should have to pay the tuition fees they’d later been invoiced for.
Case summary October 2024 | Partly Justified
A student complained to their provider that their course wasn’t good value for money. They said the library resources were insufficient, that online services were poor, and that there had been delays in receiving feedback and approval for their dissertation proposal.
Case summary October 2024 | Not Justified
A postgraduate student complained to their provider that they hadn’t had been able to complete an industrial placement as part of their course because the process for applying for placements had been unclear.
Case summary October 2024 | Not Justified
A student was awarded their degree in February 2021. In December 2023 they complained to their provider about the impact of periods of industrial action and the coronavirus pandemic on their studies.
Case summary December 2024 | Justified
An undergraduate student completed their first year at provider A. The provider informed students that some second-year modules would be unavailable to the student’s cohort due to over recruitment in a different department. The student submitted a complaint to provider A and said that because some available modules had prerequisites, this left them with limited module choices for their second year and would also impact their module choices during their third year.
Case summary December 2024 | Settled
An international student was studying on a two-year Masters programme. During the summer between the student’s first and second years the provider learned that the course hadn’t been accredited by the relevant professional, statutory and regulatory body (PSRB) as expected. Students were informed of this several weeks later, 10 days before the start of the second year. Because the course wouldn’t be accredited, students would need to pass an additional exam after completing their studies to be able to register with the PSRB.
Case summary December 2024 | Not Justified
A student applied for recognition of prior learning (RPL) to make use of credits they had achieved at another provider. The student later complained to their new provider that its prospectus was misleading because the course hadn’t delivered the practical experience described. The provider rejected this complaint.
We publish summaries of some of the complaints that we review. We always leave out of the summary any information that might identify the student who made the complaint. In some cases we decide that it is in the public interest to publish a summary of a complaint that includes the name of the provider.
