On 9th November, student representatives presented evidence to the Office of the First Minister and Deputy First Minister to call for the introduction of an independant adjudicator for student complaints and appeals in further and higher education in Northern Ireland.

Adrianne Peltz, President NUS-USI, Usman Ali, Vice-President (Higher Education) NUS UK, Adam McGibbon, Queen’s University Belfast Students’ Union and Clair Flanagan, University of Ulster Students’ Union presented to the group who were gathering evidence on the subject after NUS-USI made the case to MLAs as a result of policy passed at NUS-USI Annual Conference.

NUS-USI made the case that students studying elesewhere in the UK were able to access an independant appeals system, in such times as they felt their insitutions had failed them. Students studying in Northern Ireland should not expect any less.

The presentation discussed the following propositions:

• Students’ right to recourse to independent judgement in educational complaints and appeals
• Prospective benefits to students, to higher and further education institutions and to the public
• Why the current system isn’t working
• The student experience of complaints and appeals as evidenced by case studies
• Comparisons with the system in England, Wales and Scotland

They took the opportunity to make some recommendations about how they would hope to see the system developing in the future. The decisions of the ombudsman must be equally accountable to students and to institutions to ensure independence. Moreover the public must be assured that the ombudsman is carrying out his or remit effectively.

Recommending the following:

• The Northern Ireland ombudsman should report annually into cases of student complaints and appeals in higher and further education referred for adjudication.
• The ombudsman should have the authority to make and enforce recommendations to institutions with respect to improvement of processes and redress for students, and to launch an investigation where there is evidence of significant failure process failure in the handling of student complaints.
• Provision should be made within the system to ensure that students' unions and institutions are clear about the remit of the ombudsman and how s/he can support improvements to the advice and information offered to students.
• The ombudsman should be properly resourced to carry out this work, particularly in the short term.