Thursday, November 20, 2014

Grievances and your rights

Not many International students are aware that there are grievance policies in place. They can be for anything such as academic policies and procedures or a lecturer you hate. Or if there is another student who you see doing the wrong thing you can also complain. But it has to be within good reason.

All universities have a complaints handling unit who deals with student and staff complaints. At RMIT they see about 200-300 student complaints per year. If you are unsure of where to go its best to ask your union.

You have the right to:
* Complain about the university
After all you are paying money for a service and you have the right to be treated fairly. But students need solid evidence.
Under the ESOS act students can complain and they have the right be heard. They also have the right to bring a support person to their hearing.

They have the responsibility to
* Respond to the grievance within a reasonable timeframe. Most unis respond within two weeks. Your complaint is kept private and confidential. But however the other party needs to know about this so that they can respond appropriately.

Don't know how to make a grievance?
 You should ask the Student Union to assist. For every university there is always a student union. These are like lawyers in the way that they can represent you in University dealings. Also many universities have a student feedback form something which is useful for them to improve things for students

Some hints though:
* Be polite in dealing with the university
* Write a letter or email- a written complaint is better than a spoken one
* Be reasonable.
* If it is harrassment make sure that you keep a diary of incidents that happened. You can also call security if it is neccessary.

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