Complaints

At the OfS, we do not have the power to intervene or advise in a dispute between a student and their university or college. But there is a pathway that you can follow if you have a complaint.

This page outlines the steps to take when you have a complaint or if you need to escalate unresolved problems to an independent adjudicator, and what to do if you think a higher education provider is failing in its duties.

Student complaints

If you wish to raise a complaint about your university or college, you should:

1. Start by raising your complaint with the university or college
   Universities and colleges should have a complaints procedure that explains how to make a complaint. This will usually be on their website. If not, they should supply it on request.
2. Escalate it to the Office of the Independent Adjudicator for Higher Education
   The OIA is an independent organisation that considers student complaints. You can use the OIA complaints wizard to see the sorts of complaint it can help with.

Notifications

As the regulator for higher education in England, we want to know if a university or college that we regulate is failing in its duties.

If you believe that a higher education provider has been failing to meet our conditions of registration, and that this failure is likely to be repeated or ongoing, you can submit evidence as a notification. We will investigate the problem and, if necessary, take action to ensure that the provider meets the conditions in future.

At the OfS we cannot:

• Adjudicate, mediate, advise or intervene in a specific dispute between an individual and their university or college
• Right wrongs or compensate individuals
• Keep individuals informed on the progress or outcome of a notification
• Investigate or take action against a university or college if it is not on our register
• Act on any matter which is not covered by our conditions of registration

Notifications are not the same as complaints, so you should still follow the student complaints procedure above if you are looking for a personal resolution to the problem.