University Secretary

Current student at the University of Portsmouth

You may use the Student Complaints procedure if you are registered with this University as either an undergraduate or postgraduate student, you are studying part- or full-time, on campus or by distance learning methods.  The procedure is open to all home, EU or International students either registered with the University of Portsmouth, or those who have left the University within the last three months, where the event complained about happened during those last three months. 

If you were a student at the University but you left more than three months ago, please click here for more information.

If you are a student at a Collaborative Partner institution, please click here for more information.

There are a few points to note when making a complaint:

• in order to have the best chance of resolving a complaint, it must be made within 20 working days of the event happening about which you are raising concerns,
• you can raise your concerns as an individual student, or as part of a listed group of students where this is appropriate, although one student should act as a spokesperson for the group,
• a student cannot make a formal complaint to the University without having attempted to resolve the issues informally first unless in certain circumstances, e.g. where a relationship between staff and student has broken down,
• you may be accompanied to any meetings held during the process of dealing with your concerns by a friend or a student representative,
• anyone found to have made a frivolous or malicious complaint will be dealt with seriously under the student disciplinary procedures,
• you may withdraw a complaint at any time during the internal procedure by giving notice to either the staff in the Complaints department or to the Investigating Officer to whom the complaint was referred,
• if you study via distance- learning methods with the University, any discussions or interviews can take place over the telephone at an arranged time to avoid you having to come to University if that is not practicable,
• in the first instance, we ask students registered with the University to try to deal with any concerns informally, by raising them with a member of staff.  This could be the member of staff that has caused your concerns, if it is appropriate to approach them, your personal tutor, a member of staff who works in the area in which your concerns are based e.g. an administrative member of staff in an academic school / department , or anyone in the list of Other Sources of Help.  By the end of this part of the process you should understand what will be done to remedy the situation,
• an informal complaint should be resolved within a ten working days; an investigation into a formal complaint will take 30 working days from the date on which your formal complaint is accepted.

If your complaint relates to your accommodation in University Halls of Residence, you should first report any problems to Hall reception staff as set out in the Halls of Residence Handbook. You should follow the Halls complaints procedure as set out in the Handbook before using the Student Complaints procedure.

If you have tried to resolve your concerns informally and you are unhappy with the proposed remedy, you have the right to make a formal complaint. Guidance on how to make a formal complaint can be found in the leaflet Guide to making a formal student complaint (insert link to new guidance leaflet).  The actual complaints procedure on which this guidance is based, and against which any procedural queries will be compared, can be found here.

You should submit your written formal complaint to the Complaints department either by post to Complaints department, University House, Winston Churchill Avenue, Portsmouth PO1 2UP, or  by email to complaintsadvice@port.ac.uk or by completing the online student complaints form.