Stamping out unfair treatment of students in FE
NUS applauds moves from the Association of Colleges to create an independent body to deal with the complaints of students in further education.
Under today’s system, further education (FE) students’ only real recourse for making complaints is through their colleges’ own internal procedures. While they can technically also appeal to the Learning and Skills Council (LSC) (the FE planning and funding body), in practice, this is inaccessible and ineffective since decisions are only non-binding recommendations.
NUS believes that the current set-up lacks the necessary teeth and has been lobbying for an independent body which can genuinely make colleges more accountable over student complaints.
A comparable body- the Office of the Independent Adjudicator- already exists in higher education and has had a significant impact in helping students who believe they have been treated unfairly by their institutions.
In an article in the Times, Sue Dutton, deputy chief executive of the Association of Colleges, said colleges agreed that students should be able to take complaints to an independent body and that proposals would be unveiled in September.
She said: “Every public service needs to develop robust procedures for student complaints and we agree that students should have access to independent scrutiny if they feel the system has failed them.”
“An independent adjudicator would be a significant step forward for students in further education,” explained NUS’ Vice President for Further Education, Beth Walker. “However, we need to ensure that any body in place is effective enough to hold colleges to account and with enough real independence to finally give students a fair system to get their grievances heard.”
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