please note that this information is aimed at providing general guidance for students, it should not be seen as an authoritative statement of policy and procedures. please also refer to the Complaint Procedures 2 here
a Student Complaint is defined as 'an issue/concern with services provided by the University; the delivery of a programme, teaching, or administration; misconduct by a member of staff or other students'
is there a deadline to submit my complaint?
complaints should normally be made within 15 days of the event which has given rise to the complaint or, if a series of events has given rise to a complaint, within 15 days of the final event in the series.
what are the different grounds for a complaint?
if your complaint is regarding any matter relating to the assessment and examination procedure or academic appeals, please refer to the Academic Appeals Procedure.
if you are studying at a partner insitution, please contact us for more informaton
how can student advice help?
what should I include in my complaint statement?
you will need to provide a full, detailed and chronological statement of your complaint with evidence. the statement should include;
stages of complaints
stage one: local level
your complaint can be raised verbally/written to the relevant member of staff. you should raise the matter within 15 days of the event or the last situation relating to the event. you may be asked to an informal meeting by the faculty to help clarify your complaint. the staff member should send an acknowledgement of your complaint within 5 days, and a full response within 20 working days. if you are not satisfied with the outcome, you can continue to stage 2.
stage two: faculty/departmental investigation
complaint submitted to the complaint co-ordinator (for service delivery) or Dean/Head of Department (for staff conduct) for investigation via the complaint form here. you must raise a stage 2 complaint within 15 days and should again receive an acknowledgement in 5 days and full response in 20 days.
stage Three: complaint review
if you wish to proceed to stage 3, you will need to submit your complaint form to the academic registry within 15 days of the of the stage 2 complaint decision to be reviewed. this stage does not include a reinvestigation; they will only review the process of the complaint ensuring that the procedures were followed. they should acknowledge your complaint within 5 days and provide a full response within 20 days. if the complaint is not resolved at this stage, then you will have exhausted the university procedures. you will be issued with a completion of procedures letter and proved the details of the Office of the Independent Adjudicator (OIA).
contact us
although we are not working on campus, our advice team are still working remotely. you can contact them by emailing support@kingston.ac.uk. we can then either advice by email or arrange a virtual meeting using Zoom or MS Teams.