IUS0006

Written evidence submitted by the Office of the Independent Adjudicator for Higher Education (OIA)

The Office of the Independent Adjudicator for Higher Education (OIA) has a perspective on the impact of industrial action on students and some insight into mitigations higher education providers have put in place from our role as the independent student complaints review body and as part of the regulatory framework for higher education.

Higher education students in England and Wales can complain to the OIA about their provider. The OIA has a wide remit to consider complaints from students about any "act or omission" of a member provider. This includes complaints about service quality, course provision, academic appeals, placements, disciplinary and fitness to practise procedures, and accommodation that is owned or managed by the higher education provider.

In recent years we have handled many complaints arising from earlier industrial action and other disruption and some of the learning from this type of complaint is relevant to the marking and assessment boycott. As part of our good practice work, we have published guidance for providers and student representative bodies on how to support students through industrial action and other disruption and issues to consider when handling complaints. We have also provided a number of case summaries on these issues to show our approach when reviewing complaints from students. We have published a briefing note and FAQs for students as well as guidance for providers. We believe this has contributed to improvements in providers’ handling of these types of complaints over time.

We have so far received a small number of complaints from students impacted by the recent marking and assessment boycott. Some of these are premature as they have not yet completed the internal processes of the provider. However, students have 12 months after completing the internal processes to being a complaint to us so it is too early to have a full picture of complaints that we may receive. We also note that a significant proportion of such complaints will have been resolved by the provider to the students’ satisfaction without the need for external review.

It is notable that some of the complaints we have received relating to the MAB are in the context of students’ wider experience and other disruptions they have experienced, related to things such as lost teaching as well as the loss of valuable feedback.

Some of the complaints to us have raised concerns about the uncertainty around, or the direct impact on, the student’s progression either within their course or to further study within the UK or internationally.

We have seen examples of providers who took early mitigation and were clearer in their communications with students than we have sometimes seen in earlier rounds of other types of industrial action. In some of the complaints we have seen, providers have already made an offer of compensation to students before the complaint has reached us, but the amount of compensation is not accepted by the student. We believe this shows there is an acknowledgement of impact but differing views on the extent of it or expectations around redress.

We are aware through our ongoing engagement with providers and student organisations that the impact of this year's industrial action varied greatly between providers and often within providers and the impact of the MAB also varied partly as a result of different forms of assessment used by providers. However, we are also aware that the pressure on other staff having to put in place mitigations may lead to an impact on students and their experience more widely. We are aware that some students have experienced a cumulative effect of disruption over the last few years and were just relieved to complete their courses.

More positively we have heard through our engagement with providers and student representative bodies some examples of learning from previous industrial action and preparation for mitigations to be put into place which has limited the impact on students. For example there have been instances of providers working together to ensure students were not disadvantaged where they want to progress to further study. We’ve also been told of finalist students being given evidence to show employers and for continuing students there have been interim procedures put in place so that students could progress as far as possible.

January 2024