Research and Business

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Our Complaints Procedure

The University of Bradford is committed to providing the best possible service to customers and we welcome your comments - either positive or negative. If you are dissatisfied about the standard of service or lack of action by the University, please tell us. Your comment will then be handled in accordance with our complaint handling procedures.

We take expressions of dissatisfaction by customers seriously (whether they take the form of a comment or a formal complaint) and promise to:

• Respond to your complaint speedily
• Look into your complaint thoroughly and fairly
• Deal with your complaint honestly, politely and in confidence
• Apologise if we made a mistake
• Tell you what we are going to do to put things right

The following is an outline of how to make complaints and how they are dealt with.

Step 1 - Informal

We endeavour to handle complaints informally at the point at which they arise. Many apparent concerns arise from misunderstandings that can quickly be resolved by talking things through with your main point of contact at the University.

If you wish to complain about an individual and you are unhappy approaching them directly, you can talk informally to the Dean of the School concerned, or, in the case of the University¿s central knowledge transfer team, the Director of Knowledge Transfer & Research.

Step2 - Formal

If you feel unable to make an informal approach, or consider that your complaint has not been satisfactorily resolved, you will need to write a letter or an e-mail detailing the nature of your complaint to the relevant School Dean or the Director of Knowledge Transfer & Research.

You will receive an acknowledgement within 5 working days of its receipt, and a response will normally be sent to you within 15 working days. If the complaint is likely to take longer to investigate, we will keep you informed of progress on a regular basis.

We will provide full written details of our investigation into the complaint together with an apology if appropriate, what we are going to do to put things right, and the nature and terms of any offer to be made in satisfaction of the complaint.

Step 3

If you remain dissatisfied with the University¿s response you should write back to the Vice Chancellor, who has overall responsibility for dealing with complaints, stating your reasons for not accepting the offer. You will receive an acknowledgement within 5 working days of its receipt.

A final letter of response summarising the outcome of all investigations and, where appropriate, a final offer of redress, will be sent to you within 20 working days. The letter will be clearly marked as the final response.

Record Keeping

We record all complaints at the earliest opportunity to fully and accurately capture:

• Customer: organisation and contact; contact details
• Receipt: where and when we received the complaint, and in what form (telephone, email, fax, letter)
• Ownership/investigator: who is currently dealing with the complaint
• Nature of complaint: to tell us what the complaint is about
• Progress: current status
• Resolution: follow-up action and any offer made
• Customer Feedback
• Final response

Complaint records are retained for 6 years.

Complaint Handling Procedure - Contacts

Step 2

Step 3