Q: Congratulations Sarah on your first 6 months leading the National Student Ombudsman. Can you tell us how the 6 months have been?
Thank you! The last 6 months have been very busy for us here at the NSO.
We opened our doors on 1 February and received our first complaint within 15 minutes! Since then, we've been working hard to help students and higher education providers to resolve complaints, and, by extension, to support students to continue their education journey, and to encourage providers to improve their services.
As well as facilitating dispute resolution, we've participated in over 250 engagement activities to raise awareness of the NSO. I've met with Vice Chancellors across the country and connected with a wide range of stakeholders through presentations, conferences, introductory meetings and sector events.
In these first months, we've learnt a lot about the complexity of the university sector, and about the challenges and successes across the student journey. In this time, the NSO has also grown from a concept to a team of 60 dedicated staff nationally.
Q: How many students has the NSO helped so far and what types of complaints is your team handling?
In the first six months, over 2,200 students have contacted us, which is more than we had anticipated. Almost 1,800 of these contacts have resulted in a complaint we've taken forward.
We're hearing a wide range of complaint issues which reflects the NSO's broad jurisdiction to handle complaints about "the actions of higher education providers".
We've heard many complaints about back of house course administrative issues. For example, delays, poor communication, misinformation or no information about things like course design or course availability, course transfers, withdrawals or unfair processes around recognition of prior learning. Delays in administering these things can push a student's course completion back, which in turn delays their finish date and them getting into the workforce. We've also heard complaints about issues with the quality of teaching and learning, the perceived unfairness of university processes relating to misconduct or unmet academic requirements, complaints about discrimination and complaints about gender-based violence, particularly issues with complaints and investigation processes and how students are supported when they make a complaint.
Q: Do you feel that the NSO is having a positive impact on students' experience with their education provider?
My staff and I are very lucky to see every day the difference the NSO is making. This is what motivates us. Here are just a few comments from students we've received:
- During a time that I felt that I no longer had a voice, that I was silenced and unheard by the university, what I am forever grateful and will forever be grateful for is the fact that the NSO (still) gave me the opportunity to be heard.
- While I'm glad that I reached out to your office to submit a complaint against the university, I also have to say "thank you" to your complaints team for stepping into my life to not only give me a listening ear but for also lending a helping hand.
- I had waited 4yrs. 4yrs to be heard, and I finally got that and now that the process is complete, I feel that I am at a stage where I will be able to focus on recovering and healing properly.
- What you did resulted in me being able to return to my studies.
Q: What has been the most satisfying part of your role so far?
It's a real privilege to have this role and there is so much I love about it. But, for me, the most satisfying part is very easy to choose! At the end of every week, I spend time reading through individual student matters and I always feel moved when I read a case where a student's voice has been heard, and a provider has embraced the opportunity a complaint provides to improve its services. Hearing that students are getting back to their study after engaging with the NSO is particularly satisfying.
Q: What are the NSO's priorities for the next 6 months?
As a new service, we know we need to continue to build our capability. We're always assessing and refining our complaint handling process, acting on feedback from students and the sector.
We are committed to prioritising our data reporting and insights capabilities to provide regular evidence-based insights to the higher education sector, in support of best practice complaints handling.
We are also committed to strengthening our trauma-informed capabilities and practice, including in our complaints handling, investigations, and conciliation and restorative engagement functions.
Engagement with the sector has been a big priority that we establish the NSO, and this remains essential to us. We want to prioritise the elevation of student voices so that students, and the issues and concerns which matter most to them, are always at the centre of our work. We will continue the NSO's regional circuit, including a planned visit to Tasmania, to ensure students around the country can connect with us in ways that are personal, accessible and impactful. And we will embed cooperation and information sharing with other higher education sector oversight organisations, including the Department of Education and TEQSA.
We are also preparing to deliver education initiatives aligned with sector needs, while fulfilling our legislated function to provide advice and training to the higher education sector.
Q: What can a student expect when they contact the NSO?
Students who contact the NSO can expect to be listened to and taken seriously. They can expect our complaints team to consider the information they share with us respectfully and in a way that puts them at the centre of our processes. And they can expect to be clearly informed about how the NSO might be able to help them and the possible complaint outcomes. If the complaint is about a matter that the NSO cannot consider - for example academic judgement (marks) or vocational education and training courses - students can expect to be informed of which organisation is better placed to help them.
We also work with students to ensure that we have enough information to consider complaints - so students can expect us to let them know if we need more details on the matters they're raising. And if, as is often the case, we need to contact a higher education provider about the complaint, we always seek the student's consent first. At the complaint finalisation stage, students can expect clear communication about the outcome of their complaint.
Q: How can students contact the NSO?
