Case Summaries

The panel decided that the student had breached its expectations about how students should behave on seven occasions. The panel did not uphold a number of other allegations. The provider wrote to the student setting out its decision and the penalties it had decided to apply. It also explained how the student could make an appeal against its decision and set out the deadline to do so.

The student did not submit an appeal within the deadline. The student later requested a Completion of Procedures Letter and made a complaint to us.

We considered the provider’s decision that the student had not exhausted its internal procedures. We did not uphold the student’s complaint (we decided it was Not Justified). The student said they did not appeal because they understood that this might result in a more severe penalty being applied, and so they wanted to complain directly to us. We did not think this was a good reason for the student not to make an appeal to the provider. We were satisfied that the student had not been individually discouraged from pursuing an appeal. We think it is good practice for providers to explain to students what the possible outcomes of an appeal might be.  In some cases, for example where there is new evidence, it is possible that a new panel may reach different conclusions and apply a different penalty.