QAA Concerns Scheme: How to raise concerns with QAA and how QAA will respond
Publication Date: 14 Jun 2018
There are a number of organisations that deal with complaints regarding higher education. Each has specific areas that they can help with.
At QAA, we use the term "concerns" instead of complaints. We investigate concerns about academic standards, quality and UK higher education providers' public information. We have our own Concerns Scheme. We use this to investigate each concern fairly and as quickly as we can.
We can address concerns about the following types of higher education provider:
- alternative providers in England, Wales and Northern Ireland
- Access Validating Agencies
- higher education providers in Scotland (see the QAA Scotland website)
WHAT WE CAN HELP YOU WITH
If you have already worked through the provider's own complaints process, we can help with:
- inaccurate or misleading public information
- failure to meet commitments made in prospectuses and other published material
- misleading information about the accreditation of a course by a professional body
- inadequate guidance for examiners on marking examination papers
WHAT WE CAN'T HELP YOU WITH
- matters of academic judgments, such as examination results
- individual claims for tuition fee refunds
- requests for providers or external examiners to remark work
- grievances against individual staff
- problems that the provider has already rectified
Who else can help?
If we can't help then one of the following organisations may be able to:
Office of the Independent Adjudicator (OIA)
The OIA looks at individual complaints from students in England and Wales.
Office for Students (OfS)
OfS considers concerns about quality and standards at publicly funded higher education providers in England and Northern Ireland.
Higher Education Funding Council for Wales (HEFCW)
HEFCW deals with concerns regarding public providers in Wales.
Guidance and Submission Form
To raise a concern with us, complete the following form using the guidance to help.
Concerns Scheme Submission Form
Publication Date: 14 Jun 2018
Is your complaint about QAA?
View our Complaints about QAA page.