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Complaints Procedure
This document lays out procedures for students (and former students) who wish the college to consider and, if necessary, respond to serious dissatisfaction with their tuition, or other aspects of college life, in cases that do not involve harassment.
- This document lays out procedures for students (and former students) who wish the college to consider and, if necessary, respond to serious dissatisfaction with their tuition, or other aspects of college life, in cases that do not involve harassment as defined in the College’s Code of Practice Relating to Harassment (for which the procedures are similar: see Undergraduate and Graduate Handbooks).
- Complaints may be discussed initially with any Fellow or Lecturer, including in particular the College welfare advisers (The Senior Tutor, The Tutor for Women, The Chaplain, Male Welfare Advisor). For a complaint to be registered formally, a College Officer will need to be approached.
- The relevant College Officers are as follows:
- for academic matters: the Senior Tutor;
- for issues involving college staff, food, accommodation and related
- financial matters: the Home Bursar;
- for other financial matters: the Estates Bursar;
- for behavioural or non-academic disciplinary matters: the Dean;
- for complaints about a College Officer: the Principal (or Vice-Principal).
- The College Officer will (a) seek to offer sympathetic and confidential advice; and/or (b) try to find a remedy, or a reconciliation (in cases where relations have broken down between individuals, and the complainant does not object to this course).
- On the advice of the College Officer the student may decide that it would be best to drop the complaint and that the matter be dealt with informally. To indicate the moment at which the procedure becomes formal, complainants will have to sign a statement indicating their wish formally to register a complaint.
- Complainants may at any stage be accompanied by a friend or an adviser (e.g. an officer of the JCR or MCR).
- If the complainant does not wish to be identified, the initial approach may be made through another student (e.g. an officer of the JCR or MCR) or through a Fellow, a Lecturer or the Chaplain. However, it must be understood that certain kinds of complaint will not be easy to make or sustain anonymously. Any initial approach to a College Officer will be in confidence, and the complainant will be advised of how far further action will involve others knowing his or her identity. Complaints may be withdrawn; but in some circumstances investigation will have to carry on to allow someone complained about to have the opportunity to clear their name, or so that the College can be satisfied that nothing improper has occurred.
- If the College Officer approached is unable to resolve the problem to the satisfaction of the complainant, the complainant may approach the Principal (or Vice-Principal, or, for a complaint that involves both, the senior Fellow, not being the Vice-Principal). He or she will consider what remedy is desirable, and if necessary convene a Panel to consider the case, this Panel to consist of three Fellows drawn from the members of the Complaints and Disciplinary Panel who, so far as practicable, shall have not previously been involved in the case, and two students, who likewise are independent of the case. These students will be chosen by lot by the senior Fellow on the Panel from a list of eight names submitted by the President of the JCR and four names submitted by the President of the MCR. The lists of such names shall be submitted to the Principal at the start of each Hilary Term. All those chosen will be bound by requirements of confidentiality.
- The College will provide the complainant with a written outcome to the complaint. If the complainant is dissatisfied, the student may appeal to the Conference of Colleges Tribunal. Information as to the procedure for applying to the Tribunal is available from the Jesus College Tutorial Office. On completing consideration of a complaint, the Tribunal will issue its decision. The issuing of this decision will conclude the College procedures for the formal examination of a complaint.
- When the College procedures for the formal examination of a complaint are concluded, whether or not by consideration by a Panel or the Tribunal, the complainant will receive a formal Completion of Procedures letter from the College. That letter will make clear that the complainant, if dissatisfied with the outcome, may be able to complain further to the Office of the Independent Adjudicator for Higher Education (OIA) within three months of the date of the Completion of Procedures letter. This same process will apply to complaints raised in relation to procedures under the Harassment Code, and under the College’s academic and non-academic disciplinary procedures. The right to take a complaint to the OIA only arises once all the available appeal procedures have been concluded. The OIA will not entertain appeals in certain areas, most notably on matters of academic judgment or admissions. Leaflets and other material relating to the OIA are available from the Principal’s Secretary and in the JCR and MCR, as well as on the OIA website: www.oiahe.org.uk
- Each College Officer will keep a register of formal complaints made in an academic year, and a summary of numbers and outcomes will be collected by the Secretary of the Governing Body and submitted to Governing Body at the beginning of each Michaelmas Term. The registers will indicate how many formal complaints have been registered, and what stage they reached (resolved by the College Officer; taken on by the Principal (or Vice-Principal); taken to a Panel; taken to the Tribunal; taken to the Office of the Independent Adjudicator; still unresolved; withdrawn).
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