The UCSA Student Advocates can help you understand the University’s complaint process, including the range of possible outcomes.

The UCSA Student Advocates can review your draft written submission and provide feedback.

A concern is an expression of worry about something that has happened. A person raising a concern is usually a witness and may have no direct personal involvement in the concern they are raising.

A complaint refers to any accusation, allegation, or charge. A complaint is usually lodged by the person who has direct involvement in the incident that has led to the complaint. It can be more informal, and a complaint should occur before a grievance is filed.

A grievance is a formal written complaint that there has been a violation, misinterpretation, misapplication, discriminatory application or unreasonable application of an official University regulation, policy, procedure, or code.

As a student, you can raise a concern or lodge a complaint about any of the following situations:

• Treatment by the University or its staff;
• Financial or contractual issues with the University;
• The quality of delivery of a service, including a course or programme, provided by the University;
• A student’s wellbeing or safety, including issues of racism, discrimination, bullying, physical and/or sexual violence;
• The actions or conduct of a University staff member or student;
• Breach of privacy;
• Issues around intellectual property; or
• Health and safety.

You may wish to lodge a complaint in order for the following to happen:

• Have your concerns heard and/or investigated;
• Receive an apology or acknowledge of wrongdoing;
• Have a decision made or an action taken;
• Have your complaint recorded by the University; or
• Improve existing UC services and/or processes.

If you would like to file a complaint as a UC staff member (e.g., the incident occurred in your capacity as a Teaching Assistant of the University), then you should contact Community Law Canterbury and/or Tertiary Education Union.

The types of complaints that cannot be dealt with by the University are:

• Criminal matters – you may want to consider reporting such incidents to the NZ Police;
• Study loan, student allowance or student loan repayments – you will need to contact StudyLink for complaints about these issues.

There are also situations where something can be done through the University’s systems, but where a complaint is not the right approach.

For example, if you wish to complain about an academic decision that adversely affected you, you should follow the Appeals process. Click here if you want to know more about Appeals. You can also contact the UCSA Student Advocates here and we can assist you.

Yes, completely anonymous complaints can be lodged via the Report It Tool. Information about the Report It tool can be found here.

Some important things to note about Report it are:

• Concerns raised through Report It are completely anonymous. The reporting tool used to run Report It is built in such a way that there is completely no record of who made the complaint
• This does mean that it is difficult for the University to investigate and respond to concerns reported using this tool, and as a result, there is unlikely to be a formal investigation of the concern
• The primary purpose of Report It is to identify and investigate trends in concerning things that happen on campus, rather than to deal with specific individual situations; and
• If a specific individual is named as being involved in an incident reported to Report It, the University may need to present that report to the named individual for response.

When submitting an anonymous complaint through Report It, it is important to provide as much detail as possible, to ensure that the Report It team can properly understand what has taken place. If you can provide a name of the person involved that would be helpful, though please note that the University may need to provide that person an opportunity to respond.

If you wish to simply raise a concern through Report It, the UCSA Student Advocates will be happy to look over what you write before you submit it. Please contact us here and we can assist you.

Alternatively, you can always raise a concern through one of the other avenues discussed below, and request that you be kept anonymous. This may or many not be possible depending on the nature of the situation and the complaint.

Yes. The UCSA Student Advocates can help you by identifying the best course of action for your particular situation.

The advocates can also provide you with a letter template. In addition, the Student Advocate can review your draft written submission or email and provide feedback before you submit it, and assist you to identify and compile relevant evidence. Please allow 1-2 working days for the Student Advocates to provide feedback. Please contact us here to arrange this.

The University will provide you with written acknowledgement of receipt of your complaint within 2 working days after you submit your complaint.

The Grievance and Academic Processes Advisor will process your complaint and direct it to the relevant UC staff member (called The Responsible Officer) to determine what the next course of action will be.

The Grievance and Academic Processes Advisor will inform you of the outcome of your complaint within 30 working days if possible. If the investigation needs to take longer than 30 working days, the Grievance and Academic Processes Advisor will:

• Advise you of the reasons for the delay and of the projected timeframe for the delay, and when you can expect the investigation to be concluded;
• Update you on the progress of the complaint every ten (10) working days.

Appealing the outcome

If you disagree with the outcome of the investigation of your complaint, you are entitled to appeal the decision and /or any outcomes. The letter informing you of the decision will inform you of how to appeal the decision.

You have a right to seek leave (permission) to appeal to the Tumu Tuarua Akoranga | Deputy Vice-Chancellor Academic.

You need to apply for leave to appeal within 10 working days of receiving the notification of the decision you want to appeal.

Please note, leave to appeal will only be granted if:

• There has been a breach of process in relation to the decision; and/or
• You have new evidence or information that was not available to you at the time of the decision; and/or
• The decision was manifestly unjust. A decision is considered manifestly unjust if it is clearly and obviously unjust, e.g., the decision is out of proportion to the reasons why the decision was made.

You need to specify in your application to seek leave to appeal how one of the above requirements have been met.

If you need help with the process, please contact us here and we can support you.

In general, it is best to try and raise your concerns within the University’s systems in the first instance. If you attempt to raise a concern through an external body, they will likely refer you back to the University’s own systems first if you have not yet made your complaint that way.

If you believe that the University’s complaints process has been conducted incorrectly or that the outcome is unreasonable though, you have the right to raise the matter for external and independent review with:

• Dispute Resolution Schemes
• iStudent Complaints
• Disputes Tribunal
• The Human Rights Commission
• Office of the Ombudsman

University of Canterbury Student Complaint Procedures

Student Code of Conduct

Staff Code of Conduct

Prevention of Harassment and Bullying Policy

UC Privacy Statements