Dear Colleague
Draft revised Code of practice, Section 5: Academic appeals and student complaints on academic matters
As part of QAA’s continuing work to revise sections of the Code of practice, I am enclosing draft proposals for the revision of Section 5: Academic appeals and student complaints on academic matters. This can also be found on the QAA website at www.qaa.ac.uk/academicinfrastructure/codeofpractice/section5/draft
The draft section has been prepared with the help of representatives from higher education institutions and representative bodies. We have also held consultation events, in the form of round table meetings which have been open to interested parties.
The new legislation and bodies described in the document have created new circumstances, to which institutions in England, Wales and Scotland have needed to respond. In order to provide comprehensive advice to institutions, QAA invited the Office for the Independent Adjudicator and the Office of the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman each to provide an appendix, briefly describing their remit and services with respect to higher education, with links to their own websites. These are provided as appendices 2 and 3, respectively.
I should wish to emphasise that the Code of practice is a document that provides reference to widely agreed approaches to accepted academic practice and does not require formal compliance by institutions.
In accordance with QAA’s normal practice, we want to ensure that all institutions have an opportunity to see and, if they wish to, comment on the draft. There is no obligation on you to respond, but any comments you provide will be taken into account when the final version is prepared.
We should be grateful if any responses could be made by no later than Friday 13 July 2007. Please reply to David Cairns (d.cairns@qaa.ac.uk).
Yours sincerely
Peter Williams
Chief Executive
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