Complaints

The following process is for complaints about:

• the service we provide
• our staff’s behaviour
• whether we have followed the right procedures.

Our complaints procedure does not cover complaints about the merits of a decision or action by the Office for Students. 

How to make a complaint

Contact us as soon as possible, normally within 90 calendar days of the event you are complaining about.

You need to let us know:

• what happened and when
• how it has affected you
• any relevant supporting evidence
• what you would like us to do to sort things out
• your contact details.

You can email this information to [email protected] or write to:

Governance Team (Complaints)
Office for Students
Westward House
Lime Kiln Close
Stoke Gifford
BRISTOL 
BS34 8SR

We will not consider anonymous complaints unless we consider the evidence significant enough to warrant an investigation.

What happens after you have complained

We will acknowledge your complaint within seven days. Our Governance Team will decide whether the complaint falls within the remit of our complaints procedure. If so, a member of staff who was not involved in the events leading to the complaint will review the case. The reviewer may discuss a complaint with anyone connected with it to establish any relevant facts.

We will write to you within 30 working days to let you know the outcome of this review. If we have got something wrong, we will explain what we are going to do to put it right. We will also let you know what to do if you are not satisfied with our response.

Our complaints process follows, and is subject to, the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman’s Principles of Good Complaint Handling.

If you are not satisfied with our response

If you are not satisfied with our response, we will ask you to write to our Head of Governance using the complaints email address asking for a second review. You should explain why you think that we have not considered the complaint properly. This should be done within 60 calendar days from the date of our written response. Our full complaints process explains in more detail how we handle such cases.