3 Steps for a Compassionate Approach to Handling Student Complaints
As student numbers grow across the UK, the ‘student experience’ has come into focus across the higher education sector. While many discussions focus on how student satisfaction can be enhanced, it’s also important to pay attention to the other end of the spectrum: what to do when students are unsatisfied.
For many institutions, this comes in the form of student complaints. This can range from student concerns regarding teaching and learning such as the impact of industrial action or COVID-19, or disciplinary matters such as bullying, harassment and sexual misconduct. The latter is particularly concerning, as a recent report found that students are more likely to experience sexual harassment than any other group and universities seek ways to shift culture and better support victims/survivors.
The reporting and complaints procedure can be a distressing experience, especially so in the case of student misconduct. Many may find the procedure to be bureaucratic and lack the ‘human touch’.
For universities to effectively handle student complaints, standard procedures and protocols must be put in place. But having a robust procedure for handling student complaints doesn’t mean a welfare-based approach isn’t simultaneously possible.
In this article, we explore 3 solutions to responding compassionately and empathetically to student complaints. This includes being well prepared to handle complaints and ensuring students are aware of protocol; considering the diversity of the student body and building this into your approach to reporting; and delivering support mechanisms for students who submit complaints.
Managing Expectations
Students who submit complaints or reports can sometimes experience a lack of clarity around the procedure. This can be disorienting for the student, who is left anticipating a response to their complaint from the university.
You can take a strategic approach to dispel this lack of clarity. Some steps you might take for supporting improved communication with students and managing their expectations around complaints could include:
Making a list of the most common appeals you receive and devising a robust system of response to each one, which could include decision-making over whether a complaint should be dealt with in a face-to-face manner (for complaints of a more personal or sensitive nature) or virtually
Being clear with students about timeframes and, if possible, providing more granular information on how long a complaints process might take depending on the kind of report that is submitted
Outlining in detail each step in the complaints process in a simple, easy to digest way such as a flow chart or in an audiovisual format
Provide examples of how your university has dealt with past complaints
Signpost students (and, if possible, fast track them) to other services they might find useful depending on the nature of their complaint, such as mental health and wellbeing, financial hardship and disability support
Increase communication with students on finance, expressing empathy with their situation and right to value for money, whilst also outlining the difficulties universities are facing in the current funding climate
When changes are made to the student complaints procedure, communicate these to students – this will keep them in the loop and also indicate that you are consistently reviewing your processes
When students’ expectations are line with the timeframes and processes outlined by the university, you will increase student trust in your complaints procedure. As a result, you might reduce some of the anxiety students may feel around the experience of submitting a complaint. This can have a positive impact on their wellbeing and reduce the sense that their complaint is being dealt with bureaucratically, as opposed to compassionately.
Centring Intersectionality
It’s important to remember that not all students will be equally affected by the complaints process or the incident they are reporting. Understanding the different vulnerabilities and concerns student groups might have according to their characteristics is an essential element of a complaints procedure that centres empathy and compassion.
This is where an intersectional approach can act as a useful tool. Intersectionality understands that multiple forms of inequality or disadvantage can often overlap and compound one another, creating more complex obstacles for individuals who share those characteristics. In order for a complaints team to assume an intersectional approach, the first step is to consider how their department might reproduce or reinforce structural inequalities and how they can mitigate this.
After identifying “blind spots” or areas in which your services might not meet the needs of students with overlapping inequalities, you might develop some of the following responses:
Recruiting a diverse team to ensure that different voices and characteristics are represented in the makeup of your staff
Ensuring all staff understand the concept of intersectionality, understand how it affects their work and undertake unconscious bias training
Making a ‘map’ of your services and considering how different student groups might experience each step, identifying processes which may (unintentionally) cause harm. Then, identify ways to change this by instead following processes that adequately support the student.
Giving the students the option to share their identity characteristics if they wish (and where it is safe to do so) so that you can gather disaggregated data on the use of reporting mechanisms
Understand the demographics that make up your university community and identify how this might affect students’ experience in an intersectional way
Provide compulsory training for all staff who interact with the complaints system that supports them to understand the different challenges or discrimination student groups and their intersections might face
Develop an accountability framework that accounts for the distribution of power or resource throughout your team
Explore ways that your complaints procedure can be more participatory for students and welcome their input, as opposed to being delivered in a top-down way
Signpost information about your reporting channels in ways that are accessible to all students – this could include developing materials in Braille or sign language, providing visual or audiovisual explanatory content or delivering awareness-raising campaigns
Highlight safeguarding and confidentiality in your communications to support students who may have particular concerns or needs around these areas, offering anonymous reporting as an option
Make sure to obtain consent from reporting students before taking action on their complaint, outlining any potential risks, such as the need to undergo investigation or interview
If possible, ensure complaints are reviewed by multiple members of the team and that potential risks are identified in each case
Developing an understanding of how different students interact with the complaints procedure allows you to refine your services, to make sure they reflect the needs of these groups. This ultimately leads to a process that centres compassion, as it accounts for the difficulties certain groups might face before, during and after submitting a complaint.
Supportive Wellbeing Measures
Submitting a report or complaint can be a distressing process for a student, especially if that report concerns something like accessibility or sexual misconduct. That’s why it’s crucial to ensure that mechanisms are in place to support the wellbeing of that student throughout and after the process.
This could look like the following:
Providing explicit and clear guidance from the outset to ease anxieties about the reporting process. The University of Kent have published a video guide outlining the process.
Signposting students to support available across the university, such as counselling services.
Working directly with your mental health service providers to offer bespoke support for students experiencing the complaints and reporting process. The University of Exeter directs their claimants to a network of Dignity and Respect Advisors, who are trained volunteers that provide a confidential and informal service for anyone involved in cases of harassment or bullying.
Developing a peer-to-peer support scheme where students can go for help.
Accommodating any academic concerns the student might have – for example, by offering them mitigating circumstances in their examinations – and supporting them through any application process they may encounter.
Offering alternative study options or relocating students for safeguarding purposes where necessary.
Consider how friends of claimants or students who have been reported may be affected, as they may too require further support. Exeter has a blog post outlining how friends can support friends who have been affected by sexual harassment, while KCL’s support page encourages concerned students who have been reported to access their services.
If a student is unhappy with the outcome, it should be clear where they can request a review and what this process will look like.
As students often receive the result of their complaint by email or letter, it can be supportive to offer complainants an informal discussion with a member of the team to discuss the outcome of their report.
In order to make the procedure as compassionate as possible, try to integrate the reporting process alongside the support students can claim in your communications. A resolved complaint is, therefore, one that has taken into account the wellbeing of the student and provides them with options and support that aligns with the outcome of their report.
A Welfare-Centred Approach to Claims and Reports
To centre welfare and compassion in a complaints procedure means to treat all participants with dignity and respect. Recognising the human behind the complaint or report allows us to go beyond process, and work towards supporting students effectively and carefully.
A robust response that is well prepared for a number of different claims can help to build trust in your service and reassure students that their case will be handled with care. Coupled with an understanding of the diversity of the student body and their different experiences, alongside well signposted wellbeing support, you can deliver an empathetic process in which students are cared for and trust in your services.
The Student Complaints Action Day 2023 will explore the latest practical solutions in managing and resolving student complaints across the higher education sector. Click below to find out how you can attend this event and many more as part of a HE Professional membership.
