OIAArvostelua 

Utter distress

No parcel received although they said they sent

waste of my money

don’t use

I don’t understand how this organisation earned two stars if it only has one-star-reviews. I am not happy with the outcome of my complaint. I wouldn’t have given them even one star if it was possible. The organisation is definitely biased. They ignored facts or misinterpret them. While I had obvious reason to complain, I was offered compensation for distress which is more than 10 times less than I expected it to be. I don’t understand while they recommend using their guidelines for calculate compensation, if they are not going to follow it anyway.

They are financially dependent on the University's contributions as stated on their website, and so they are so biased in favour of the Universities. To be honest, you can laugh for days when you receive their final response. It is very very unlikely to win your case under OIA review.
I made a complaint against Teesside University. The grounds of my complaint were very strong. I have written professionally about 10 pages explaining every aspect of the case in addition to two comprehensive response letters at different stages. But, at the end after several months, you just could laugh at OIA response. It was like they did not even read through my complaint.

The only thing I can recommend is to take your case to the court in the first place if you can. Do not waste your time with OIA.

The funniest thing is that there is nobody to monitor their performance. This is shame. So bad for the UK reputation.
Shame on you.

I studied with BPP for over three years and I have encounter various SERIOUS issues with this University. My grades throughout the course were really good but when it came to exams my grades dropped significantly…. despite having correctly answered the question or formatted essay structures. Unfortunately, these ‘markers’ are never satisfied. I received a failing grade on the research paper which resulted in the failure of the program (note I passed all the other modules), with a childish feed-back containing multiple question marks or single worded remarks with no explanation. I filed an appeal more than five times with supporting evidence to show the incompetency of the marker who contradicted legal evidence and resources. Unfortunately, my appeal was rejected for having challenged an academic judgement (AJ). Under their rules and policies my complaint did not amount to AJ. Moreover, at the same time I was being harassed by their admission team for over a year with phone calls and emails telling me to apply for further education, using persuasive language, wanting fee payment to be made promptly etc. Despite stating my position as a student expected to take further examinations, they kept persuading me to apply. They never respond to questions that are outside being interested in studying and making payment. Clearly shows how money hungry these people are.

My complaint consisted of these two events which was then being dealt with the OIA – after seven months of exchanging evidence, comments and so on my case was closed in favour of the University. The OIA had breached many of their protocols which they acknowledged and apologised for but chose to refuse to re-open my case and suggested going for judicial review. OIA is funded by higher education providers, there are a ton of cases and articles proofing their biased attitude in favour of higher education providers. Millions of student gave them back lash but it seems the whole system doesn't care.

A Terrible service, sided with the university stated they do not look into issues of bullying, their ignorance to my complaint has ruined my life, and left me feeling suicidal after being ignored.

At the time of writing this review there are nine others of this organisation, all of them extremely negative. Regrettably, I have to say that in my experience the negativity is fully justified. I have been unable to detect anything other than a blatant bias from the OIA in favour of the complained of university (Cambridge). The bias could not be greater if the OIA were legal counsel acting for the college, and is so blatant as to be insulting.
Contrary to what is claimed, the OIA appears to have been set up to get universities off the hook. Facts against the university are ignored or rejected without justification, while the flimsiest unsubstantiated defence from the university is accepted. As a result, a students’ whole future can be, and often is, adversely effected. It's beyond disgraceful, and in a moral society would be criminal.
Contrary to what some reviewers appear to believe, my understanding is that the OIA is paid for by the universities in the same way that other ombudsman type bodies are often funded by the organisations they adjudicate on. As with those other bodies, the OIA’s findings favour the funding party – surprise surprise. A simple answer in the case of those ‘other bodies’ is to avoid their ombudsman and go straight to the Small Claims Court. However it’s not always so simple in the case of universities, as the complaints may not be of a simple monetary or breach of contract nature. This is where the OIA scores by being able to take advantage of the situation and assert its bias.
As other reviewers say, the OIA needs to be disbanded, and disbanded quickly. But additionally, an enquiry needs setting up into the way it has been operated; with penalties levied for the malpractice, and commensurate compensation for the victims.
Therefore, in addition to writing reviews on this and other forums detailing the apparent corruption of the OIA, students should write to their MP and get a petition up for a question to be asked in Parliament I'd put a link to the web page but TrustPilot won't allow such links. So simply Google 'Petition Parliament' and avoid the adverts offering help, you don't need them, and they can be scams too! In the case of MPs, it is also worth remembering that despite all the rubbish they spout, all they really care about is getting your vote. So reminding them that students tend to be young, will therefore be voters for many years, and if their party ever wants your vote they need to do something, and do it now.

The OIA is an absolutely disgusting and corrupt organisation that has zero morals, zero ethics, zero accountability, zero compassion and zero intellect.

Reviews are carried out by untrained gibbons who take University explanations for mistakes at face value no matter how absurd or disgusting. The OIA takes a hard line approach that it can only review whether a University has broken its policies and procedures, however even when you prove that the University has broken its policies, the OIA excuses them.

The OIA is staffed by absolute morons who will take the University's side regardless of truth, reason, evidence, logic, the law or due process. Even where the University admits it has done wrong, the OIA will excuse them and reject a students complaint.

The OIA is not fit for purpose and as a result students are dieing left right and centre. The OIA does not see students as human beings. Students are less than human, not deserving of the values that the OIA falsely advertises itself to have.

The OIA publishes a select few examples on their website which give a false impression that they uphold numerous complaints. This is misleading, as the vast majority of complaints are rejected to protect the Universities. Only a select type of complaint is justified, and those are complaints which are in line with the OIA's ideology driven agenda.

Human beings are having their careers ruined because of how the OIA is run.

Human beings are having their lives destroyed because of how the OIA is run.

Human beings are dieing all across the country because of how the OIA is run.

Poor quality institution that should be disbanded

I need some support to initiate a an investigation from the ombudsman and a judicial review. Why should they be getting tax payers money when they serve no useful purpose to a civil society?. We also need a student focus pressure group to defend the interest and rights of students and that will help universities to deliver better service to students. The OIA is not fit for purpose!

The OIA doesn't deserve any stars at all. It is an absolutely useless institution, blindly biased towards the universities. It doesn't even follow its Scheme Rules. The OIA shouldn't be on the Ombudsman Association's register as it has no regard of the Association's principles of good complaint handling and good governance. It simply needs to be dissolved as it doesn't appear to serve its intended purpose to fairly and impartially review students' complaints. It abuses its position of trust with impunity. Sadly, many students' lives have been / are being ruined by this institution because of its unwavering bias towards universities. The OIA definitely needs to be investigated. It's not fit for purpose at all.

I am in the midst of pursuing a complaint against OU through the mandatory OIAHE. They are showing worrying signs of minimising my complaint to a single point, and I'm suspicious that they will simply reject the whole 2-year long complaint process. They have upheld my complaint and then came back and said "we've had more evidence" (circumventing/ignoring all the initial problems). I have had the feeling that this organisation is a farce, as it is very common for quangos to be set up to water down, distract or reject customer complaints in the UK. It needs to be known if there are, in fact, any advisory organisations/websites for students who are left with no option but to pursue legal action? How are universities regulated? What courses of action are usually taken?

Update: As expected OIAHE are in the pay of OU and are not independent at all. There is no independent body protecting OU students from their anti-disability practices.

This organisation describe themselves as being impartial and able to review student complaints appropriately?
Unfortunately , they did not consider any of the evidence I presented to them by Ignoring key facts and evidence. Summarised my complaint into smaller content that suited them and the University to create a particular outcome. Came to conclusions that could not be justified based on the evidence I had presented to them.
Took too long to review my complaint and when I pointed out that a deadline provided by the university was approaching , as provided to them within my complaint, they quickly rushed it through ( showing that this deadline had not even been reviewed within my complaint appropriately). The OIA were then quick enough to point out to me that they are not a quick remedy service and reviewing complaints takes some time , which was no form of reassurance given that they are a mandatory service to whom you have to submit your complaint before any legal review and the only service you are permitted to submit your complaint to.
Quickly rejected my appeal against their decision , suggesting to me that it may not have even been considered properly. Could not possibly have reached the decision to reject my appeal based on evidence presented to them throughout. They Ignored contradictory evidence I presented to them for every single point of rejection within my complaint.
Is this organisation truly impartial? Who actually funds this organisation? What is the true purpose of this organisation, other than pretending to review student complaints? I am now in the process of collaborating with other students affected by the process to gather facts and evidence, to investigate and take further appropriate action.

Said they sent emails that I've never received, didn't read my complaint, offered me £500 for years of being messed around by my university. Definitely appeared to take the uni's side.

In one word: a Travesty. Far from "independent". The assessor at the University who suppressed my complaint was also working at the OIA. It is a joke really. And the 'adjudicator' would purposefully misconstrue the complaint despite clarifications. They are an utter waste of time. They are paid by universities to whitewash complaints. Zero stars if I could.