MATURE university students may face challenges, but they are not backward in coming forwards when they’re unhappy about something.
Figures from the first annual report of the Office of the Independent Adjudicator (OIA) reveal that a third of the 86 formal complaints it acted on in the first nine months of its existence were from students aged 40 and over. But students in this age group make up just 1.9 per cent of the undergraduate student population.
“They have often given up other careers to retrain for a new career, such as teaching. They are more conscious of their rights and the ability to complain,” says the chief adjudicator, Dame Ruth Deech, in The Times Higher Education Supplement (June 24).
The report shows that the organisation received 300 inquiries and 120 complaints during the period from April to December last year. Of the 19 complaints that were formally concluded by the end of the year, the OIA found in favour of the student in nearly half of the cases.
In some cases compensation was ordered. For example, the University of East London had to pay £3,000 to a 53- year-old student who missed a first-class honours degree by less than 1 per cent. UEL had admitted poor teaching and assessment processes that may have affected the student’s performance.
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But a compensation culture is to be avoided, Dame Ruth says: “Normally there is no need to seek legal representation to pursue a complaint under our scheme,” she says in an opinion piece for THES. The OIA’s main concern, however, is upholding academic integrity in degree classifications. She also cautions that the rise in international student numbers is likely to bring problems relating to proficiency in English and the level of language support offered.
www.oiahe.org.uk