Complaints

Two things make a complaints procedure worth having: it names a person, and it says how long. This one does both. Nothing here stops you going straight to the second stage if that is what you want.

First, the person you are dealing with

Most complaints are a thing that has gone wrong rather than a thing that is wrong, and the adviser holding your file can usually fix it inside a day. Say what happened and what you want done about it. If you would rather not raise it with them, skip to the next stage and nobody will ask you why.

Then, in writing to the office

Write to the address at the foot of this page with what happened, when, who was involved and what you would like done. You will get an acknowledgement within two working days that names the person looking at it - somebody who was not part of what you are complaining about.

They will read the file, speak to whoever needs speaking to, and write to you within ten working days with what they found and what happens next. Where something takes longer than ten days to establish, they will tell you that within the ten days and give you a date.

What you can expect from the answer

A plain account of what we think happened, whether we think we got it wrong, and what we are doing about it. Where we got it wrong we will say so without qualifying it, put it right where it can be put right, and tell you what has changed so it does not happen again.

Where we do not agree, we will say that too, and say why, and tell you what you can do next. An answer that dresses a refusal up as an apology is worse than a refusal.

If you are still not satisfied

Ask for it to be looked at again by the person who runs this office. That is the end of the process here.

Beyond that: a complaint about a university is for that university, and every one of them has a procedure - we will help you find it and will write in support where we think you are right. A complaint about how your personal information was handled can go to the data protection authority in the country you live in. A complaint about a regulated immigration adviser goes to the body that regulates them.

What we do with complaints

Every one is recorded, including the ones settled the same day by the adviser. They are read together every quarter, because one complaint is an incident and four of the same complaint is a process that needs changing.