Find out how to submit a complaint relating to the period of industrial action running from 1 February to 22 March 2023.

Background information

Thank you for your cooperation through this period of industrial action.

The University is committed to informing students as quickly as possible about the details regarding this period of industrial action.

See dedicated and updated information provided by the University about the industrial action.

Responding to your concerns

The University is taking steps to make sure any disruption caused by industrial action is minimalised as much as possible for our students.

However, we recognise that there may be circumstances where students may wish to communicate their specific concerns relating to this period of industrial action to the University.

The University has therefore put in place a bespoke procedure for such concerns to be considered. This bespoke procedure is designed to ensure swift responses and outcomes to student concerns, ensuring any disruption is reduced as much as possible.

Industrial Action (1 February-22 March 2023) complaints procedure

This procedure will be open from Thursday 23 March 2023 until midnight of Wednesday 18 April 2023.

The procedure will consist of two tiers: Tier 1 and Tier 2 (if applicable).

Tier 1 – Assessment stage

On 23 March 2023, an online form was made publicly available to all students to submit their concern/s regarding this period of industrial action. The deadline has passed to submit a Tier 1 request.

All students who submitted an on-time Tier 1 assessment via this procedure will receive dedicated correspondence at the earliest opportunity.

If you have any queries regarding the Industrial Action (February – March 2023) complaints process you can contact complaints@sussex.ac.uk.

Tier 2 – Review stage

We hope that the Tier 1 outcome provided to students addressed their concern/s. In the event that a concern remained, students were eligible to request a review of their Tier 1 outcome under any of the three grounds below (if applicable).

The Tier 2 review was not a re-assessment of a student's concern/s. It considered ongoing concerns on three grounds.

These were:

  • there were procedural irregularities in the assessment of the complaint, and, this irregularity had a material effect on the outcome
  • there was new evidence that can be presented now (which wasn’t available at the earlier stage), and, you were unable to reasonably provide this sooner
  • the outcome of the assessment is unreasonable based on the weight of the evidence.

A student was eligible to request a review on any of the above applicable grounds for 15 working days, from receipt of their Tier 1 outcome.

The deadline for all students eligible to request a Tier 2 review has now passed.

If you have any queries regarding this scheme you can contact complaints@sussex.ac.uk. If you request to submit a Tier 2 review outside the time limit specified in your Tier 1 letter it is likely that the University will issue you with a letter explaining that you are out of time.

Support

You can obtain advice and support regarding your complaint.

This can be obtained from:

Completion of Procedures

You will get a Completion of Procedures document when we have reached a point where we cannot pursue your complaint any further.

The University’s decision on this is final.

You can use your document to request an independent review.

Independent review

If you have exhausted our complaints process, or you have received a Completion of Procedures document, you may wish to contact the Office of the Independent Adjudicator for Higher Education (OIA).

The OIA provides an independent scheme for the review of university student complaints and appeals.

Other appeals and complaints

This process should not be used if you wish to appeal a mark or assessment result.

For this, read about our process for academic appeals. You have 21 calendar days from the publication of your results to submit an academic appeal.

You can also raise concerns and complaints about anything else you feel has gone wrong by reading our complaints procedure.

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