- e) teaching or other provision made by your college, you should raise it either with your tutor or with one of the college officers, Senior Tutor, Tutor for Graduates (as appropriate). Your college will also be able to explain how to take your complaint further if you are dissatisfied with the outcome of its consideration.
- 2. If you feel unable to approach one of those individuals, for example, if your complaint is against the person who would be the normal contact, you may contact the Head of Department ([Insert Name]). If you are unsure who would be the best person to contact about your complaint, you should contact the department administrator (Insert name/generic email) who will be able to advise you.
- 3. The person dealing with the complaint will attempt to resolve your concern/complaint informally or refer to another member of staff who is better placed to deal with it. If they refer it to another member of staff you will be informed of the person who is dealing with the complaint.
- 4. If the designated person who would normally handle the complaint is on annual leave for a long period or on sick leave, please contact the Head of Academic Administration (or equivalent) ([Insert name]) in the department for advice on who the complaint should be referred to.

## Complaint Confidentiality:

- 5. Your complaint will be handled confidentially. This means that people should not be told about your complaint unless there is a good reason, such as those who need to be told for the purposes of investigating or responding to the complaint or academic appeal. No third party should be told any more about the investigation than is strictly necessary.
- 6. Confidentiality does not imply anonymity. It will usually be the case that the department will need to disclose information to others, including the person (or persons) who are the subject of the complaint. This is likely to include informing them of your identity as the person who made the complaint.
- 7. should be informed by the person dealing with the complaint who will be told about your complaint. 7. should be informed by the person dealing with the complaint who will be told about your complaint. You are entitled to object to information being shared with certain people, but should be aware that this may limit what action the department can take. E.g. it is not usually possible for a department to take a complaint forwards without giving the person who is the subject of the complaint an opportunity to respond to any allegations made against them.
- 8. Anonymous complaints will only be considered in very exceptional cases, where there is a compelling reason to do so. Raising a concern anonymously might impede the investigation and communication of the outcome.
- 9. All parties involved in a Complaint are required to act reasonably and fairly towards each other and to respect the University’s procedures. No one investigating a Complaint should have any conflict of interest in the matter.
- When to raise your complaint:
- 10. Complaints should normally be raised as soon as possible and no later than three months of the matter arising. It is acknowledged that in some cases there is not always a clear point at which the matter arose, e.g. where a complaint is being made about supervision over a period of time. However, it is still important that complaints are made as soon as possible, as this gives the maximum opportunity for a satisfactory resolution to be reached.
- 11. For academic appeals these should be made within five working days of when you were notified of the academic decision which you are appealing.
- 12. It is important to remember that there is a time limit of three months for a complaint to be referred to the Proctors for consideration.
- a) If a complaint is raised very close to the three month time limit and there will not be sufficient opportunity for the department to investigate, the department will notify the Proctors’ Office of the complaint and seek advice on how to proceed.