Complaints Summary – Academic Year 2023-2024

1.1  The University’s Complaint Handling Procedure is adopted from the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman’s (“SPSO”) Model Complaints Handling Procedure for Higher Education. An update of the procedure was approved by the University Senate in March 2021. 

1.2  As part of this update, the SPSO has updated its requirements for the reporting of complaints and the publishing of complaints performance statistics, complaints trends and outcomes, and actions taken to improve services. Parts 2 and 3 of this report will be published on the University’s website in accordance with this requirement. 

1.3  The Complaints Handling Procedure sets out a complaints process with two steps: frontline resolution and investigation. Frontline resolution is appropriate where complaints require little or no investigation and can be resolved within five working days (or ten if an extension is appropriate). Any member of staff may deal with complaints at this stage (including a staff member complained about) with the aim to respond to complaints at the earliest opportunity and as close to the point of service delivery as possible. The investigation stage is invoked for more complex cases, and the procedure states that a full response to the complaint should be provided as soon as possible but not later than 20 working days from the time the complaint was received for investigation. Not all investigations will be able to meet this deadline, and where that is the case, the complainant will be advised of this, and of the revised timeframe, and the reason for the extended timeframe.  

1.4  The Model Complaints procedure defines as complaints those matters that have proceeded formally through the University’s Complaints Handling Procedure through either the frontline or investigation stages. This means that straightforward matters, such as queries or comments from students or other parties, are interpreted as routine service requests, and are dealt with at a local level rather than proceeding through the formal complaints process.   

1.5  This report provides a summary of the number and nature of complaints that were dealt with under the formal Complaints Handling Procedure during the 2023-24 academic session. Information on performance against published timescales is also provided.  Court members receive an update on complaints activity as part of the Quarterly Compliance Report presented to the Court.

1.6  During the reporting period, the Legal Adviser and University Secretary provided support and advice to any member of staff dealing with a complaint at any level. 

1.7  Members are asked to NOTE the information in this report. 

2.1 Indicator One - Total Number of Complaints

During the period under review, there were 32 complaints recorded as being received from students and members of the public (22 in 2022-2023). Twenty-four of the 32 complaints were categorised as ‘frontline’, and nine were categorised on receipt as ‘stage 2’ or were escalated to ‘stage 2’.