OIA Anmeldelser 71

Casework Administrators, Senior Case Handlers, Casework Support Managers, everyone in the OIA is either fully incompetent or completely biased. The OIA claims to be independent, but it always sides with universities. Even with clear evidence of a university breaking its own rules or ignoring its policies, the OIA dismisses it and accepts the university’s version without evidence or scrutiny.

It’s not an independent review—it’s a rubber-stamp that protects universities and covers up their mistakes. Students expecting accountability or fairness will get nothing. The OIA is a waste of time.

My experience with OIA has been very frustrating and deeply disappointing….

I feel that the way the OIA has treated me during my experience with them has been extremely traumatising and flippant.

Because of how they are continuing to show a lack of applying correct procedures, this meant having to request to reopen my case after they tried to force me to take on a course that does no longer exist neither does the modules for years.

Throughout my interaction with OIA, I have been experiencing suicidal ideation as well as thoughts of harming myself due to fighting with them for clarification for a very long time waiting for answers to basic questions. Even though they placed my case under as a priority, there has been a lack of urgency or willingness to investigate.

I found that they will not follow up on basic course queries unless you get your solicitor involved, they will gaslight / bully you if this isn't in your complaint so then they do not have to consider anything but luckily in my case I made sure of listing as much as detail as possible.

One of the most serious issues I encountered was that the correspondences I submitted were not looked at properly such as evidence, the oia had prepared an automated email once I had submitted my response to them in half a page after clicking on the send button, very unsatisfactory, which can be called confirmation biased of interest.

This completely undermined my trust in their process and left me questioning the integrity of the service altogether like others here.

Based on what I went through, I cannot recommend OIA, and I strongly suggest others proceed with caution using free legal aid or a law clinic specialist.

The OIA staff AC did an appalling failure of any due diligence and compliance with the equality act.

The University of Oxfords own data protection officer refuted the case she handed. My paper should have been marked for being 10 minutes late. I also found that other students were getting their papers marked months before mine and mislead told the panel were going to get it changed ' as a result of my case'. that was a complete lie as it was done months before my panel and everyone was emailed . The panel head was allegedly to write to the department to review it , but the data protection officer refuted it and no record of any conversation was also ever recorded based on the data protection officers feedback.

No one will answer this one question .. what did the computer science department say to you when you allegedly asked them to change their late 'harsh' marking penalty.

The Disability Advisory Service Head also stated they should have been consulted about my medical escalations - yet they were never contacted ignored when the academic panel refused to mark a paper 10 mins late with 90 hrs of work whilst ignoring my including my diagnosis for :

1.Functional Neurological Disorder after escalation by my Neurologist at Queen Marys Richmond to an Neuro-opthamologist at St Georges Tooting.
2.Being told by Moorfields I was going blind
And then priority escalation by the surgeon to another Moorfields specialist for
3.Functional Sight Loss
4.Autism

The University had an legal and student obligation to act in an anticipatory manner when they know of suspected medical conditions, yet the academics and admin staff even refused to accept my medical investigation into autism that was subsequently diagnosed as positive.

Other students had their papers marked well before my panel and yet my case was why they were going to change it : it was BS. And on top of not marking my paper they wanted me to redo it as my College disability advisor stated it was a ' good idea'. Yet I am then told by my own Computer science department I have acquired the knowledge - without any marking of my paper or feedback and then told to redo it.

My college welfare officer would also refuse to ask that one question : she said to ask my supervisor and he refused stating that it would 'harass the office staff' despite it costing me £2k and 90 hrs of work whilst facing multiple medical issues.

I appealed off my own back. and perversely told that the Neurologists medical escalation letter that led to each subsequent diagnosis would now be looked at in full : the panel ignored the key contents including his escalation to a neuro ophthalmologist whilst claiming to have looked at my medical records 'very closely' - despite every condition arising subsequently from the same escalation. Unless they had a time machine..

So they ignored all my medical escalations and diagnoses to sanction my paper despite my medical conditions yet then looked at everything diagnosed to dispense with it . How messed up is that.

The data protection team undermined this further as did the DAS :i had to go to great lengths under trying medical conditions to expose this. The data protection team also wrote my paper under the marking guidelines alone should been marked as it fell into the term they came into effect and this is equality act aside. That's why no one wants to answer the one question &ignored every medical escalation. The OIA staff member ignored all the points and captured and would be caught deleting my emails. They are useless quangos and as an IT manager with nearly 30 years experience we will challenge things given we paid nearly £30000 for this MSc at Oxford.

Do not use OIA. It's bastion of dishonesty and a huge waste of time.

As dishonest as UK universities.

Academic staff of the School of Electronic and Electrical Engineering of the University of Leeds threatened me, intimidated me, breached health and safety regulations, refused to discuss the science involved in a PhD project. The University of Leeds deleted my replies when I was trying to talk to other students on the University of Leeds's internal network. The Doctoral College of the University of Leeds never replied to my emails when I complained to them about the situation. (Weeks passed, months passed, years passed and the Doctoral College still hasn't replied.)

The University of Leeds tampered with my emails and redirected them to unintended parties without my knowledge or permission - when I tried to send an email to someone, it would go to someone else's email address (even though I didn't write that email address myself)! I only found out about that by talking to the IT team.

Student Cases (the complaints department) told the IT team to close my ticket before the investigation was over. And the IT team promptly did so - in spite of the fact that the University of Leeds didn't solve my complaints for years.

The overall attitude of the University of Leeds was like this:
When it came to doing something for me (e.g., solving my complaints), they would say excuses like "we have a high volume of cases" etc. When it came to doing something against me (e.g. something abusive, like closing the IT ticket before the investigation was over), they did so very promptly. No "high volume of cases".

The academic staff didn't even follow the procedures of the University of Leeds (bad as they are).

My PhD supervisor made me feel threatened by telling me universities have more money for lawyers than students.

My PhD supervisor told me, among others, that if my research becomes too advanced he wouldn't be able to examine me (so much for trying to do proper research).

And much more.

I had plenty of evidence (emails, documents etc). And there is much more evidence that the University of Leeds deleted or blocked my access to.

In spite of all this (and more), the OIA found my complaint against the University of Leeds "not justified".

My research at the University of Leeds was funded by the UKRI (the United Kingdom Research and Innovation). This is taxpayer's money. The University of Leeds has to abide by quite a few terms and conditions in order to receive funding from the UKRI. Among these conditions it is having a proper complaints resolution system. However, in significant cases, my complaints remained unsolved after years. In some other cases my complaints are solved superficially or dishonestly.

Is this why the UK taxpayer is giving (through the UKRI) the University of Leeds money to do research? I strongly doubt it.

Like other students said, go directly to your solicitors and don't use the OIA.

I wonder how UK universities think they'll recover from their financial difficulties:

Do UK universities think that such a deeply corrupt, deeply dishonest higher education system - and with such a corrupt "independent adjudicator" like the OIA - is going to attract more overseas students (or even home students)?

Think again.

I cannot stress further the constant re traumatisation that is not recognised by their service. OIA shows zero respect that the people who contact their services have already undergone horrific experiences from universities. I fully understand that OIA appear to cover up the university of south wales bad apples. That is how they perceive us, as “bad apples”. Also if a year passes from any form of university trial where facts don’t apply, the OIA won’t even pretend to act on your behalf. I wish the best to the broken people, who were eliminated by organisations such as this one.

My experience with OIA has been nothing short of frustrating and deeply disappointing.

Throughout my interaction with OIA, I consistently felt undervalued.

One of the most serious issues I encountered was that the correspondences I submitted were modified.
… that can be called falsification.

This completely undermined my trust in their process and left me questioning the integrity of the service altogether.

Based on what I went through, I cannot recommend OIA, and I strongly suggest others proceed with caution.

Don't waste your time and energy with OIA! Go Legally Always!!! OIA will always take side of the university because they are sponsored by the universities. They are not listening to you, they just repeat the same process the universities do.

This so called "Independent" Adjudicator is solely funded by the Universities and their only purpose is to defend their bosses who are paying their salaries. Their only purpose is to protect Universities from lawsuits, waste student's time, ignore/fabricate evidence, and retaliate when challenge.

Its a shame that they call themselves independent adjustor....dont waste your time and energy with them and its horrible.

About a year ago, I read the reviews about the OIA and most of them were negative. I didn’t believe them at the time, but honestly, I did not get a fair outcome either. They don’t really care about the students they care more about protecting the university.

I would advise anyone with a breach of contract or something serious and legal to take their claim outside the OIA. They also take months I submitted my complaint at the beginning of the year and only got an outcome in July. It took so long, and they already seemed fixed on an outcome, which was that I wasn’t justified, despite me explaining how unethical the situation was and that the university had admitted to messing up. Yet they wanted me to accept a small sum of compensation.

My advice: go legal if you can don’t rely on the OIA.

Anyone hoping for a fair independent look at complaints is expecting too much. I had hoped the other reviews on here were the exception to the rule. Unfortunately that’s not the case

I raised two complaints. One where the university had clearly gone against its own policy and then point blank refused to consider a complaint about this. Absolutely fine and fair according the OIA

My second complaint concerned a delay to results publication. The university admitted this had occurred but denied any form of recompense. Also fair and reasonable according to the OIA

You’d have more chance of an impartial review asking Sir Alex Ferguson to man the VAR booth at a Manchester United game. All these cowboys are interested in is patting the universities on the back and dismissing legitimate student complaints

No professionalism, very opaque process. "Independent body"? Where? I was clearly right, and they confirmed it themselves, but in the end they hastily closed the case, implying that the university had made me offers (which I never received), and since then it's impossible to contact them. Very disappointing.

In A Nutshell


the OIA appears to be doing this for several potential reasons:

1. Institutional Protection
- Prioritizing the university's interests over the student's
- Minimizing potential financial or reputational risk to the institution
- Creating procedural barriers that make it difficult for students to successfully challenge university decisions

2. Systemic Bias
- Tendency to favor institutional procedures over individual student experiences
- Interpreting rules and regulations in a way that predominantly supports the university's position
- Applying a narrow, legalistic interpretation of complaint processes

3. Bureaucratic Efficiency
- Seeking to quickly dismiss complex complaints to manage their workload
- Using procedural technicalities to avoid in-depth investigation
- Reducing time and resources spent on nuanced, challenging cases

4. Structural Limitations
- Lacking robust mechanisms for truly independent investigation
- Having a complaint resolution model that fundamentally disadvantages individual students
- Operating with limited accountability

5. Power Dynamics
- Reflecting a higher education system where administrative processes often prioritize institutional convenience
- Creating significant obstacles for students with limited resources to challenge decisions

The approach suggests a system that appears more focused on processing complaints than genuinely addressing underlying issues of fairness, accessibility, and student support.

Absolutely diabolical service From the OIA. The OIA just re-iterated a whole load of lies that were told by the University (Bath Spa) in their own complaint investigation. The OIA hasn't listened to me at all and have just supported this university in completely failing to deliver the necessary professional training on a degree that could and should resulted in employment.
The OIA just send the message that Universities like Bath Spa can get away with anything and there is absolutely nobody to hold theme to account.

This is a complete joke of an organization. My caseworker Nicole Long was very unprofessional, and the OIA will always find a way to condone the university even when they are in the wrong. Do not use this service!

They didn't help at all and closed my case without me even being able to provide evidence. I protested that it isn't fair. I warned them that I'll leave the 1 star for everyone to see as a matter of protest

Basically the claims people have won on their site are just for show.

They take payments from the universities as shown in their hidden document on their website.

Throughout the process you are left to the side, while OIA and the uni work out what they're going to do against you, so unbalanced. OIA has incentive to help the university.

They leave people like myself in the dirt with 20k of debt, a wasted year, PTSD, and no explanation.

I am actually sat here with a headache and tears because I went to study a course that ended up not running.

I was and am punished for holding them accountable.

£6 million OIA has in the bank on an average year, profit, from Universities. (you can see on companies house)

These people are desperate and disgusting, they have ruined part of my life. They are the reason people commit suicide over debts.

Please, please, please. My course did not run as it should, I need my money back.

The OIA our a biased organisation to whom universities subscribe too as members. If universities were too unsubscribe, the OIA would not be able to operate, so clearly the OIA will always side with the university. The OIA calls itself a charity however operates as a members club, this is not generally considered charitable. Further too this the OIA clearly operates in such a way that violates laws, and discriminates against people with protected characteristics. This is not only highlighted by the OIA’s Google reviews but highlighted too by the lack of transparency the OIA has when it recieves new evidence IE in this case I was not notified by email or text when evidence had been reviewed and wasn't given a right to respond and review the information.

I do not believe that the OIA operates legally and ethically, it is for this reason that I hope my last academic year goes smoothly, with no issues of procedural irregularities, bias or otherwise discrimatory and unprofessional behaviour, as I do not wish to have any dealings with corrupt organisations such as the OIA again.

They are not helpful to students case and would usually choose to side with the institutions.

Let's universities get away with discrimination and bullying especially Central School of Speech and Drama.

I returned to study , my clinical supervisor locked me in a room without my consent and ignored my concerns throughout placement and accused me of gaslighting her , drama school only gave me a timetable 5 days before so I couldn't even access my support for over half the term and so I failed all over again. This was after repeatedly asking for my placement and timetable details from 3 months beforehand.

Central then reduced already failed grade from a 47 to a 38 and Craig Howlett's response was 'thank you for being so polite , good luck for the future and my revised lower grade was apparently 'a perfectly reasonable offer'. The implication being I'm lying about my traumatic experience and being a brat.

Absolutely pathetic organisation - I didn't want to return to Central but I do think I should have been refunded my fees after the trauma caused by lack of support , bullying and discrimination.

I feel I could have passed my degree had not been treated the way I was at Central and now my life savings have gone down the drain and I've used all my student finance.

Would give zero stars if I could - this organisation isn't fair and very biased in favour of universities. Hope the OIA gets disbanded.

Just another reminder that students don't have rights .