A complaint is defined by the College as an ‘expression of dissatisfaction that warrants a response’.
Your complaint might relate to a number of different things, including:
• The provision or delivery of your programme or parts of it
• Inadequate supervision
• Inadequate services or facilities within the College
• Decisions, actions, or perceived lack of action by a member of College staff
• Discrimination, bullying, or harassment by a staff member or fellow student
How do I make a complaint?
The College has a four stage complaints process.
1. Stage One Complaint
This is the first stage and means resolving the complaint locally and informally within the department concerned. You should first discuss your concerns with your personal tutor or a member of staff you feel comfortable approaching. If this doesn’t resolve your complaint, you could escalate to a more senior member of staff such as the Programme Lead or Head of Department. If you are a Postgraduate Research student, you can approach the PGR Coordinator (also sometimes called the PARC Chair or PHD lead) and if that doesn’t resolve the situation, you can speak to the Vice Dean for Doctoral Studies for your Faculty.
If your complaint relates to bullying, harassment, or discrimination, you can also report online via Report + Support. You can report anonymously or with contact details. If you report anonymously, formal action cannot be taken against an individual, but the anonymous reports are used to monitor trends and inform prevention work.
An informal complaint should be raised at the earliest opportunity, and it’s hoped you’ll be able to reach a solution informally before the problem escalates. However, if you’re not satisfied with the outcome, you can move to stage two.
2. Stage Two Complaint
If your complaint cannot be resolved at Stage One, then the next step is to make a formal complaint. Please note that formal complaints cannot be made anonymously and anyone involved in your complaint would be notified of the complaint and its contents.
A copy of the Student Complaints Procedure and the Student Complaints Form (which is the form you’d need in order to make a formal complaint) can be found here: https://www.kcl.ac.uk/aboutkings/orgstructure/ps/acservices/conduct/complaints.aspx. You would need to submit this to [email protected] no later than 3 months after the issues occurred. The College would then appoint an investigator to consider the complaint, who would usually be someone within your Faculty who had no previous involvement with the case. They would give you the outcome in writing within 25 working days of receipt of your complaint.
The College rarely invites students in for meetings to discuss their complaint or requests further documentation, so please ensure you submit everything you want to be considered at this point.
Here is a guide to completing the Student Complaint Form:
Section 1
This section is straightforward as it asks for your personal details.
Section 2
This requires a short summary of your complaint and is used for initial processing so it doesn’t have to be very detailed.
Section 3
Here you would select the most relevant option to your complaint – you can select more than one or if you don’t feel any apply, you can select ‘other’.
Section 4
This part is for the detailed explanation of your complaint. You should explain your reasons for complaining, a timeline of what has happened, what errors you feel the College has made, what impact the issues have had on you. As far as possible, you should back up what you explain in your complaint by referring to any evidence you have.
Section 5
This section is for you to explain any personal details about the impact the situation has had on you. Please note that section 4 of your complaint would be passed on to the person or department about whom you are complaining, so that they could respond. However, section 5 will not be passed on, so this is where you can include any confidential information that you do not wish to be disclosed to the subject of your complaint, for example you may wish to explain how your mental health has been affected.
Section 6
This is where you’d list any evidence you have, so for example any relevant emails you’ve sent and received to/from the College, any documentation from the College that supports your case, any relevant legislation and/or letters from professionals to confirm the impact the issues have had on you.
Section 7
This is the part where you’d explain what action you have taken so far to try to resolve this situation including how you tried to resolve the complaint at a local and informal level in line with Stage 1 above.
Section 8
This is where you’d explain the outcome you would want from your complaint. There is no set list of outcomes, but possible things students can request include an apology, financial compensation, changes to procedures etc. Complaints would never have academic outcomes.
For further guidance about possible outcomes, please see the following information from the ombudsman for higher education, the Office of the Independent Adjudicator: https://www.oiahe.org.uk/media/2275/putting-things-right-february-2019.pdf. Information relating to financial compensation can be found on page 6 onwards, and on pages 8-9 there is useful guidance about different categories for compensation.
Section 9
This is where you read through the declaration and sign. The College prefers for complaints to be sent from a student’s KCL email address and if you do this, you can provide a printed signature.
3. Stage Three (Appeal of the Complaint Outcome )
If you are not happy with the outcome of the Stage Two Complaint, you have a right to appeal the outcome under certain criteria within 20 working days of receiving the outcome. You would need to be able to show either that you had new evidence relating to your complaint which you couldn’t provide sooner for a good reason, or that a significant administrative error was made by the College when they were investigating, which means your complaint should be considered again. You can also appeal on the grounds of compassion, which is essentially asking for your complaint to be reconsidered out of compassion – appeals made on this basis are less likely to be successful.
There are three main outcomes from a complaint appeal – it can either be declined, or a new offer could be made to resolve it or it could be heard by an Appeal Committee, which is an independent committee made up of staff and a student volunteer who would hear from you and the person who responded to your complaint, and decide on a final outcome.
4. Office of the Independent Adjudicator
If you are not satisfied with the outcome of the appeal, you can take your complaint to the ombudsman for higher education, which is the Office for the Independent Adjudicator (OIA) once the college processes are completed.
Is mediation offered?
Yes during Stages 1 and 2. Mediation is run by the King's Legal Clinic who will determine whether the complaint is suitable for mediation. Their decision is final. All parties have to agree to participate for mediation to take place and consideration of the complaint under the complaints policy is paused while mediation is ongoing. It will be resumed if mediation is unable to resolve the complaint.
Can I complain as part of a group?
Yes, students can complain as a group. Initially, students should speak to their student representative who should raise the issue with the programme lead. If this cannot resolve the complaint, then either the student representative or a nominated member of the group should submit a complaint on behalf of the group and act as a liaison between the College and the rest of the group. All students should sign the complaint however so it is clear who is part of the group. Any outcome would apply to all members of the group.
Who can help me?
It’s a good idea to seek advice and support with can talk you through the procedure and answer any questions you might have.