We have published our Operating Report 2022 and our Operating Plan 2023.
We received 2,850 complaints in 2022, which is a 3% increase on 2021 and once again our highest ever number. Despite the high volume of cases, we met most of our targets for timeliness of our processes and we closed our highest ever number of cases (2,821), 6% more than in 2021.
We continued to share learning and encourage good practice. We ran a range of online outreach events, sharing learning from complaints and listening to the experiences of students, their representative bodies and higher education providers. We consulted on and published an updated version of the Good Practice Framework: Handling complaints and academic appeals, further developing the Principles and introducing new guidance on Bias and the perception of bias.
We continued to work with governments and key organisations in the sector and beyond, drawing on our experience of student complaints as an independent ombuds organisation to promote fairness for students across a range of issues. We also continued to work towards our longstanding aim of extending access to our Scheme to all who could benefit from it, including towards the expansion of our remit in Wales under the Tertiary Education and Research (Wales) Act.
Our Operating Report 2022 records progress against our Operating Plan for 2022. As usual we will more fully explore trends and themes from the year in our Annual Report 2022, which we will publish in the Spring.
Our Operating Plan 2023 is based around our four key priorities through which we fulfil our purpose: reviewing student complaints, sharing learning, working effectively with others, and continually developing our organisation. The Plan sets out what we intend to do in 2023 to advance each of these priorities and what we aim to have achieved by the end of the year.
In April 2023 Felicity Mitchell comes to the end of her term as Independent Adjudicator and we will welcome a new Independent Adjudicator, Helen Megarry, who will take up post in May. Dame Suzi Leather comes to the end of her term as Chair of the OIA Board in September and we will be recruiting a new Chair in the course of the year.
ENDS
Notes to Editors
For further information please contact Jenn Runde, Communications Officer, mediarelations@oiahe.org.uk, 0118 959 9813.
- The Office of the Independent Adjudicator for Higher Education (OIA) is the independent student complaints ombuds for higher education in England and Wales. It is the designated operator of the student complaints’ scheme under the Higher Education Act 2004.
- Our Scheme is free to students and has been designed to be accessible to all students, without the need for legal representation.
- We have a wide remit to review student complaints about higher education providers in England and Wales, as set out in the Rules of our Scheme.
- Students normally need to complete their higher education providers’ internal complaints or appeals procedures before they can come to us.
- You can find further information about the Scheme and our work at https://www.oiahe.org.uk/.
- Our Operating Report 2022 and Operating Plan 2023 is now available on our website.