Assaults, abuse, delays and teaching quality on uni complaints list: student ombudsman

Poor customer service, the quality of teaching and appeals of academic misconduct findings are the top complaints to the new student ombudsman, while discrimination and racism also feature.

Sarah Bendall leads the newly established National Student Ombudsman.

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Poor customer service, issues with the quality of teaching and appeals of academic misconduct findings have topped the list of complaints to the new student ombudsman, while discrimination and racism such as anti-Semitism and Islamophobia, and serious sexual assaults, have also been raised.

About 1300 complaints from 1500 contacts have been made to the student ombudsman since February, about 80 of which related to student health and safety issues including gender-based ­violence, bullying and harassment – a key reason the federal government launched the system in the first place.

The overwhelming majority of serious sexual assault and harassment complaints were current rather than historical, and were brought to the National Student Ombudsman before the internal university process had been completed – something that was un­expected, according to Australia’s First Assistant Ombudsman, Sarah Bendall.

Ms Bendall said most of the complaints – about a quarter and rising – concerned “poor customer service” or what the ­ombudsman calls “course administration” complaints.

This included complaints about delays, inadequate advice and unfair decisions around course applications and admissions, degree certification, changes in course design, enrolment and deferment processes, recognition of prior learning, transfers, and the application of special consideration.

“What we’ve learnt from that and the message that we’re giving to the sector is that these seemingly small issues can have a really big impact on students,” she said.

Around 11 per cent of complaints were about fees and refunds, which Ms Bendall said was “not surprising in a cost-of-living crisis”.

Another 16 per cent of the complaints related to academic misconduct appeals and exclusion processes, which includes allegations of contract cheating. Students told the NSO they believe “processes are intimidating and heavy handed and suggest that providers aren’t listening to them, or that those processes are taking too long”, Ms Bendall said.

The quality of teaching and learning made up about 16 per cent of the complaints, which covered inadequate academic support; safety issues; bullying or harassment on student placements or delays in arranging placements; the quality of and ­access to supervision for postgraduate students; and courses being out of date.

“There are complaints about the breakdown of a relationship between (PhD) supervisors and students … we’re seeing complaints where on a human level, it’s not a good match between ­supervisors and students, which again suggests for some providers they might need to look at the processes they have to identify good supervisors at the outset and make sure supervisors are trained up in good management,” Ms Bendall said.

Discrimination, racism and ­racial vilification made up about 7 per cent of complaints, and included not just the allegation of racism but inadequate supports for Jewish and Muslim students, for example. “We recognise the definition of discrimination is narrow, and often what students are complaining about might not meet that definition but is about the support that university offers,” Ms Bendall said.

When it came to gender-based violence complaints, she said it was “really about students not having felt supported through university … processes for resolving allegations of gender-based violence, or supporting them to ensure that they can continue their studies safely and not opt out of their courses,” including that processes were taking too long or they weren’t being updated about what was happening.

“Universities might tell them they would receive greater supports if they had lodged a police report, which is concerning that in the context where we know it’s challenging for some people to take that step, that it would impact on the level of support that provider gave that student,” she said.

“We have received some really deeply disturbing complaints about students’ experiences of gender-based violence … and we’re working with students and providers on the best way to resolve these complaints, from the perspective of achieving closure for these students.”

She said over the four months, the NSO was “starting to get a picture of what the key issues with the student experience” were.

“The picture that is emerging is one where cost-of-living stress is real for students and students are frustrated by poor provider administrative activity slowing down their degrees,” she said.

“There’s been strong demand for the service over this time … and while we appreciate there are 1.6 million students across the nation, and we’re only seeing a small fraction of this number, we know that not everyone feels able to complain, so one complaint can often represent the experiences of many. So that’s the approach we’re taking.”