If your complaint is about QAA, visit our Complaints and Appeals page.

If you are a student or former student and want to complain about something to do with a higher education course or provider, your first step must be to work through your university or college’s own complaints procedure - you should be able to find this on their website. If not, your provider should be able to supply it on request.

The Student Support Services team and students’ union or guild in your university or college are good places to start for advice and guidance about your issue. You can find the contact details for your students’ union or guild from its website, or (in most cases) from the National Union of Students (NUS).

If you’re a member of staff with a complaint, you should follow your organisation’s grievance procedure. You could also seek advice through your trade union representative.

If you have already done this and the issue isn’t resolved, then you can raise the matter with a number of organisations that deal with complaints about higher education.

The Access to HE Concerns Scheme is designed to provide an opportunity for students, staff or other parties to raise concerns about an Access Validating Agency, Access to HE Diploma or course provider.

The following list will help you to select the right organisation, as the specific areas covered vary. It also depends on which nation of the UK the provider is based in. You can also find information below on the type of complaints that QAA can help with.

Citizens Advice

Citizens Advice can advise on breaches of consumer rights. Visit the Citizens Advice website.

Competition and Markets Authority (CMA)

The CMA has a guide to consumer rights for students. It is able to help you with complaints about inaccurate or out-of-date public information; failure to meet commitments set out in terms and conditions, for example, surprising changes to the course or costs; and complaint handling processes being not accessible, unclear or unfair. Visit the CMA website.

Higher Education Funding Council for Wales (HEFCW)

Students and former students can complain to HEFCW about systematic problems about quality and standards within their institution - if it is on the HEFCW register in Wales. Individual complaints should be addressed to the OIA (see below). Visit the HEFCW website.

Northern Ireland Public Services Ombudsman (NIPSO)

The Northern Ireland Public Services Ombudsman offer free, independent and impartial examination of complaints about public services in Northern Ireland. Visit the NIPSO website.

Office for Students (OFS)

Students and former students can complain to OFS about systematic problems about quality and standards within their institution - if it is on the OFS register in England. Individual complaints should be addressed to the OIA (see below). Visit the OfS website.

Office of the Independent Adjudicator (OIA)

This is an independent organisation that considers students complaints. It can accept complaints from students, or former students, of English and Welsh providers registered with them. Complaints can be about anything a provider has done or failed to do, for example, regarding a programme of study, a service, or a final decision of the provider’s disciplinary or appeal body. The OIA website includes a useful list of the issues you can and cannot complain to them about. Visit the OIA website.

Scottish Public Services Ombudsman (SPSO)

The SPSO is the final stage for complaints about universities and colleges in Scotland. Visit the SPSO website.

QAA can investigate complaints or concerns about academic standards and quality where we think these raise broader issues about the management of quality, standards and/or the information the provider makes available about their provision. We can only do this for a small group of providers in Northern Ireland and those providers in England and Wales that are not registered with the Office for Students in England or HEFCW Register in Wales. We do this through our own Concerns Scheme, which we use to investigate each concern fairly and as quickly as we can.

To raise a concern with us, complete the following form using the guidance to help.

QAA Scotland can investigate concerns about academic standards and quality in Scottish Higher Education institutions (HEI) raised by students, staff and other parties through our Scottish Concerns Scheme.

The Concerns Investigation Process (Wales) provides a mechanism through which concerns about academic standards or the quality of the student experience at regulated institutions can be referred by higher education funding and regulatory bodies to QAA for investigation. 

The Access to HE Concerns Scheme is designed to provide an opportunity for students, staff or other parties to raise concerns about an Access Validating Agency, Access to HE Diploma or course provider.