Drawing inferences, as the wider media like to do, from the Office of the Independent Adjudicator’s annual casework stats is a dangerous game.
A record 2,850 complaints from students at providers in England and Wales, for example, might sound terrible – but the sector might also relax a little given the record number of students being enrolled in those providers.
For the second year in a row, OIA says it has intel that students are finding it more difficult to pursue their complaints given the other challenges they are facing, but it’s also heard that some providers are finding it difficult to progress complaints effectively through their internal procedures in the context of other pressures.
Last year the overall number of “completion of procedures” letters in England hit a high, which it put down to a knock-on from delays in internal processes at the height of the pandemic. But the COP rise hasn’t abated either – that number is up again.
