Higher education must improve complaints procedures
Colleges and universities should review and improve their complaints procedures. That is the opinion of the Education Inspectorate. Many students are unfamiliar with the complaints procedure or have little faith in it. 'It raises questions about social safety within higher education', according to the inspectorate.
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The Inspectorate came to this conclusion after a survey among students. Just over 1500 students took the time to complete the questionnaire.
Little trust
Many students do not know where to file a complaint about their education. Just under half of those surveyed, 47 percent, indicate this. Confidence in the handling of the complaints procedure is also not optimal. For example, a third of HBO students indicate that they have no confidence that their complaint about their study program will be taken seriously. There is more trust at the universities: almost a quarter of the students there indicate that they have no confidence in the handling of complaints.
The Inspectorate sees the outcome of the survey as a 'signal that things need to be improved'
Also, 18 percent of the students surveyed indicated that they do not feel free to submit complaints about the program without fear that this will have negative consequences for them. Of the students who have ever submitted an official complaint - this is a small proportion of the respondents - a large proportion (43 percent) indicate that they are dissatisfied to very dissatisfied with the handling of the complaint.
Improvements
The inspection sees in all this a 'signal that things have to be improved'. Colleges and universities must guarantee the legal protection of students, they are required by law. They must also inform students about this. The Inspectorate always refers to the complaints procedures first when students ring the bell with them to report a complaint.
'These results indicate that not all institutions have an easily findable and working complaints procedure and an accessible facility, or that students are not sufficiently informed about this,' according to the Inspectorate. 'It requires improvement actions by the institutional boards.'
Concerns have also been raised about the handling of complaints from staff in higher education for some time. Concerns about ombudsman independence.
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