If you’re concerned about how you’ll be viewed or treated by your tutors or others when you make a complaint, don’t be!

If something isn’t right, it probably needs fixing. That’s why we suggest you try not to think of a complaint as a personal attack on an individual or on the university, instead it is your opportunity to express your concern that your experience is unsatisfactory.

The University says; “ You will not be treated less favourably by us or suffer any detriment or disadvantage if you make a complaint in good faith, regardless of whether the complaint is successful or not”, this means you should not be put off or worried because you are thinking of making a complaint. You can be confident you will be dealt with fairly and you can expect to have your issues resolved confidentially and in a timely manner.

There are time scales to be aware of:

• Current Student – as soon as you become aware of an issue and within 30 calendar days of the issue or concern arising.
• Former Student – within 60 calendar days of withdrawal or last day of attendance (whichever is the sooner). (Go straight to STAGE 2 – see below).

This BSU guidance is here to help you navigate the Complaints process on your own, but if you would like our advice and support, please find out how to access the service on this page.

BSU Support is here to provide you with information to help you make an informed decision about what might be the best way to resolve your concerns. We can also support you through the complaint procedure offering help to understand the various steps and are able to accompany you to meetings. We can also advise you on gathering the right evidence to support your case.

Please remember to book appointments with a BSU advisor well before any deadlines. This is because we advise many students, and if you leave it until the last minute, we might not have the availability to see you.

Sometimes things don’t go well, and you might want to complain about it.

The University defines a Complaint as “an expression of dissatisfaction by one or more students about the University’s action or lack of action, or about the standard of service provided by or on behalf of the University.”

The first step though is to be sure the issue you’re experiencing is best dealt with a Complaint.

You can complain about anything that affects your university experience, but NOT related to Exam Board decisions regarding academic progression or an award (that’s the Academic Appeals process).

If your issue relates to any of the following, then you might have grounds for to raise a Complaint:

• Failure by the University to provide a satisfactory service.
• The quality of facilities or learning resources.
• Misleading or incorrect information in prospectuses or promotional material and other information provided by the University.
• Concerns about the delivery of a programme, teaching or administration including, where applicable, that provided by a partner college.
• Poor quality of facilities, learning resources or services provided directly by the University.
• Complaints involving other organisations or contractors providing a service on behalf of the University.

The University has a clear 3 stage Student Complaints Procedure to address informal and formal concerns or complaints. In brief this consists of:

• Stage 1 Early Resolution
• Stage 2 Formal Stage
• Stage 3 Review Stage

There are three stages to the Procedure. If you’re a current student, you’re expected to attempt each one in turn. If you’re within 60 calendar days of withdrawal or your last day of attendance, you can skip stage 1 and start your complaint at stage 2.

It is hoped that most concerns can be resolved informally within your School. In most cases this approach provides a quick solution and avoids the formality of submitting a written complaint. You are encouraged to raise issues with your School Complaints Officer - the person nominated to listen to your concerns and help find a resolution. To do this, you will need to contact your School Operations Manager. They can advise who you need to send your complaint to. Sometimes, the School Operations Manager will say to send your Stage 1 to them. This is ok. They will send it on to the appropriate person to ensure no conflict of interest.

When you are preparing your Stage 1, it's important to be as specific as possible what your concerns are and to think about what might help to put the problem right. You can send them an email or ask to meet in person. You should contact them to let them know that what you are discussing is an early resolution to your complaint. We recommend you email your concerns or write them in a word- processed document to attach it to an email.

Tips on what to write:

• You need to be as clear as possible, as the person who reads your complaint will know nothing about your circumstances. Once you have written your complaint, you need to read it back and consider whether someone with no prior knowledge of your complaint would understand what you have written.
• Writing a chronology of events may be helpful. Be as specific as you can with the dates that the events occurred.
• Be as concise but as informative as possible.
• Give examples to support the points you raise and include evidence where possible.
• If you are complaining about a specific person, you should include their name otherwise your complaint cannot be followed up. You should include information such as the person's name or job title (if it’s a member of staff) their course (if it is another student).
• Only mention witnesses and people who support your complaint by name if they have given you permission to do so.
• You do not need to write your statement like an essay. It is fine to write it as a list of bullet points.
• Be honest and precise. Any complaint considered “frivolous or vexatious” will be rejected by the University Complaints Team.

The School Complaints Officer will make every attempt to find a resolution, and you will be notified in writing of the outcome. If you are unhappy with the outcome of the ‘early resolution’, you can take your complaint to the next level, Stage 2 (Formal Complaint) within 14 days of notification of the outcome of your Stage 1.

If you are not satisfied with the response to the early resolution stage or the matter is too serious to be dealt with informally, you can submit a Stage 2 complaint using a Stage 2 form. Copies of the form are available electronically from My Studies or the Student Contract webpage.

DEADLINE – Stage 2 must be submitted within 14 days of your Stage 1 outcome email.

There is no need to repeat what you have said at Stage 1, but you could elaborate on it and refer to it, stating:

1. Why you are unhappy with the Stage 1 outcome
2. Additional supporting evidence (i.e.; emails, messages, proof)
3. What actions you have taken to try to resolve the complaint (i.e. Stage 1 completed)
4. The outcome/resolution that you are seeking (i.e.; what do you want to happen).

You need to send the form, with as much evidence as you can, to the University’s complaint email address: complaints@brighton.ac.uk.

You should receive a confirmation email acknowledging receipt of your complaint form.

A complaint investigator with no prior knowledge of your complaint will be appointed who will then keep you informed about the progress of their investigation. You may be called to a meeting with them.

Contact Brighton SU Support team if you would like someone to help you to get ready for the meeting.

Once their investigation is complete, they will write an outcome letter and email it to you. Their recommendation will be whether to ‘uphold’, ‘partially uphold’ or ‘not uphold’ your complaint. The University Complaints Team aim to have Stage 2 Complaints completed within 90 calendar days of the start of Stage 2.

If you believe that the outcome of your Stage 2 complaint is unreasonable or unfair, you can request a review of the previous stages.

DEADLINE – Stage 3 must be submitted within 14 days of receipt of the Stage 2 outcome.

You’ll need to fill in the Stage 3 Request for Review Form and email it to complaints@brighton.ac.uk.

The Stage 3 Review will not re-evaluate the issues or initiate an additional investigation. 

As this is a ‘review’ stage, nothing that hasn’t already been mentioned should be added.

You should specify on your form why you believe your complaint should be reviewed, preferably using one or more of these categories:

• there were procedural irregularities in the investigation of the complaint, which had a material effect on the outcome
• new evidence can be presented which wasn’t available earlier in the process and you were unable to reasonably do so
• the outcome of the investigation is unreasonable based on the weight of the evidence.

The Reviewer will not investigate or discuss the issues with you any further, but will consider whether the relevant procedures were followed during the formal stage.

If the Stage 3 Review is upheld, then the complaint could either be returned to the original complaints officer to re-consider the complaint, or to a new complaints officer not previously involved in the matter.

If the Stage 3 Review is not upheld, the Reviewer will give clear reasons why. This concludes the University’s complaints process. If you remain dissatisfied, you can choose to take your complaint to the Office of the Independent Adjudicator (OIA).

Once all university processes are completed, if you remain dissatisfied with the outcome you can contact the OIA - an independent body set up to review student complaints.

Free to students, the OIA deals with individual complaints against Higher Education Providers in England and Wales. The OIA will consider how your complaint was handled and is interested in whether the university has acted fairly, reasonably and within its own procedures. You can contact them to speak about your case before you submit a complaint, and we recommend you do this.