Student Complaints and Appeals
![handle is hein.journals/edulj2000 and id is 34 raw text is:
Higher and Further Education Update
STUDENT COMPLAINTS AND APPEALS
DR DENNIS J. FARRINGTON
The final version of the section of the Quality
Assurance Agency for Higher Education overall
Code of Practice dealing with Student
Complaints and Appeals will be published early
in 2000 and all institutions will be required to
comply with it by early 2001. This section of the
Code will specify that institutions must have
effective internal procedures for dealing with
complaints relating to the provision of
educational services and effective mechanisms
for the review of academic decisions. As required
by the Government in its responses to the
Dearing and Nolan Committees, an essential
feature of the procedures must be an
independent external review mechanism (see
Farrington 'Student Complaints in Higher
Education' [1998] CIL 194).
Up until now, that external review has
essentially been undertaken by the courts or, in
the chartered universities (except Scotland) and
Oxbridge colleges, by the institution's Visitor. The
latterjurisdiction, which is exclusive in the sense
that the Visitor's determination on the
interpretation of the institution's internal rules
may be challenged only byjudicial review on
limited grounds, has come under increasing
criticism for alleged unfairness, delay and lack of
consistency. Some commentators hold that it
cannot survive the implementation of Art 6(1) of
the European Convention for the Protection of
Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms by
the Human Rights Act 1998. It is now largely
abolished in countries which previously followed
the UK (as in Australia and Canada). Where the
Visitor has been retained the duties are either
purely ceremonial or have a regulatory or
investigation role which does not extend to
hearing individual complaints (as in the
Universities Act 1997 of the Republic of Ireland).
There remain some powerful advocates of the
Visitor, but at a seminar in November 1999 held
to discuss the future of the system it became
clear that it was struggling anyway. The Privy
Council Office, the Lord Chancellor's Department
and the Church authorities who act as Visitors
have seen a large rise in complaints, have no
coherent procedures for dealing with them, and
find the work a strain on available resources. For
example, there is no budget for visitorial
determinations by the Privy Council. It is
anticipated that further work will be done during
the coming year to find solutions to these
problems. Meanwhile, attempts to challenge the
extent of the jurisdiction itself (see Ktorides v
University of Nottingham [1998] ELR 184, CA) or
its exercise (R v Visitor to the University of East
Anglia ex parte Hanuman [1999] Ed CR 781, CA)
have been unsuccessful. It is arguable that the
rejection of an application for a place at medical
school which turned upon the exercise of internal
procedures should have gone to the Visitor
rather than to the ordinary courts as in R v
University College London ex parte Idriss [1999]
Ed CR 462, QBD.
The introduction of a new external review
element in other institutions may eventually
reduce the volume of cases finding their way to
the courts. In 1998-99 the number of cases
reported as reaching the Court of Appeal on
renewed applications for leave to apply for
judicial review was significantly greater than in
previous years. This mirrors the trend in the
visitorial jurisdictions, although the outcome of
these cases is rarely reported. Those cases that
are reported are only the tip of the iceberg as
many issues are resolved by informal methods of
various kinds or by formal settlement.
Complaints which have reached the higher
[2000] EDUCATION LAW JOURNAL](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.journals/edulj2000&div=10&collection=&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)
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