Complaints
We are committed to providing an excellent education and high-quality services to our students from enrolment to graduation.
We take complaints very seriously and aim to resolve them as quickly as possible.
We value complaints and ensure that we learn from them to help us improve our services and the quality of your college experience.
If something goes wrong or you are dissatisfied with our services, please tell us. This website describes our complaints procedure and how to make a complaint. It also tells you about how we will handle your complaint and what you can expect from us.
If you would prefer to offer constructive feedback rather than a formal complaint, please find details of our Red Button service here.
What is a complaint?
What is a complaint?
What is a complaint?
We regard a complaint as any expression of dissatisfaction about our action or lack of action, or about the standard of service provided by us or on our behalf.
The document CHP Part 5 - A guide for complainants provides more detail about the kind of things which can be considered as a complaint.
How do I complain?
How do I complain?
The document CHP Part 5 - A guide for complainants provides detailed guidance about how to complain.
You can complain in person, by phone, in writing or by email.
You may use our Complaint Form to help you to structure your complaint, if you wish.
The Complaints Handling Procedure (CHP)
Contact Details
Contact Details
Postal address |
|
Telephone number |
|---|---|---|
|
Complaints Officer Quality Office UHI North, West and Hebrides Ormlie Road Thurso KW14 7EE | complaints.nwh@uhi.ac.uk | +44 (0) 1847 889208 |
What if I'm still dissatisfied?
What if I'm still dissatisfied?
If a complainant has exhausted all stages of our complaints procedure and remains dissatisfied with our decision or the way in which the complaint has been handled, there is a right of appeal to the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman (SPSO) or the Scottish Qualifications Agency (SQA) (or other awarding body) to look at it. For qualifications that are regulated, if you remain dissatisfied with the way the awarding body has handled your complaint then you may complain to the qualifications regulator, SQA Accreditation.
Scottish Public Services Ombusman
You can ask the SPSO to look at your complaint if;
- You have gone all the way through the UHI North Highland complaints handling procedure
- It is less than 12 months after you became aware of the matter you want to complaint about
- The matter has not been (and is not being) considered in a court
The SPSO will ask you to complete a complaint form and provide a copy of our final response to your complaint. You can do this online at www.spso.org.uk/complain/form or call them on Freephone 0800 377 7330.
The SPSO's contact details are;
SPSO
Bridgeside House
99 McDonald Road
Edinburgh
EH7 4NS
SQA Accreditation
For regulated qualifications, you can ask SQA Accreditation to look at your complaint by following the link below to their website;
https://accreditation.sqa.org.uk/accreditation/About_Us/Complaint
Complaints Reporting
Complaints Reporting
It is a requirement that a summary of complaint numbers and outcomes is reported upon.
Higher Education reporting for the University Partnership will be available on the UHI website.
Further Education reporting below provides a summary of the number of complaints considered and the average time to resolve
Quarter 1 August 2023 - October 2023
| Number of complaints | |
| Number of complaints resolved at stage 1 | |
| Average number of days to resolve at stage 1 | |
| Number of complaints resolved at stage 2 | |
| Average number of days to resolve at stage 2 |
Further Reading
Further Reading
The UHI unreasonable complaint behaviour policy provides information about our expectations of complainants.