The additional Rules for Large Group Complaints were introduced following consultation and came into effect on 19 April 2021. The additional Rules should be read together with our Guidance on the additional Rules.
The additional Rules enable us to adapt our normal review process so that we can handle Large Group Complaints more efficiently whilst maintaining fairness. The process builds on our existing approach to group complaints. It is intended for complaints from a large group of students at a single provider where there is a high degree of commonality between the complaints and where the complaints could be considered collectively. Our approach to decision making remains the same as under our normal process: we consider what is fair and reasonable in the circumstances of the complaint.
We think it is unlikely that this kind of situation will occur very often, and we expect to continue to handle most group complaints through our usual processes. We plan to review the operation of the Large Group Complaints process after the first year to make sure that it is working fairly and effectively and fulfilling its intended purpose.
We encourage providers and student representative bodies to contact us informally and at an early stage if it appears that a large group of students may want to complain to us.