University of Derby Assessment Centre Complaints Procedure

The University of Derby Assessment Centre (UDAC) is committed to providing a high-quality service and being supportive to student concerns. We recognise that complaints are an important part of customer feedback which enables us to improve the service we provide to our students.

UDAC are, like all assessment centres required to operate within the guidelines set out by the Disabled Students Allowance Quality Assurance Framework. Although UDAC continues to follow these principals this work is overseen by the Students Loans Company. UDAC can only consider complaints based on incorrect process or infringement of the above operating principals.

The UDAC complaints procedure below outlines how the centre will deal with complaints received from students and how students can escalate their complaint if they are not happy with the response received from the centre. This procedure may be used by students to express dissatisfaction relating to a Needs Assessment, Review of Needs or in requesting additional support from the DSA (Disabled Students Allowances).

UDAC will only normally investigate complaints received more than 20 working days of the incident you wish to complain about. Only in exceptional cases will a complaint be considered outside this time frame. Significant lapses in time may impact proper investigation and the potential for resolving a complaint. In this instance, the complaint may not be able to be investigated properly or at all.

Excluding complaints received from funding bodies, UDAC does not normally accept complaints made from a third party e.g: A parent or teacher. If you require someone to make a complaint on your behalf please write to use advising the reasons you cannot make the complaint yourself and giving permission for the named third party to make the complaint on your behalf.

Complaint Procedure

In the first instance, if your complaint is about UDAC, we ask that you contact your assessor or the Assessment Centre administration team to see if your complaint can be resolved informally. This can be done in writing, by email or by telephone.

Any query or informal complaint received by the assessment centre will usually receive a holding response within 24 hours. Assessors will endeavour to respond within two working days however this may take up to ten working days to account for busy periods and holidays.

It is useful if you can provide as much information as you can in these early stages so that we can investigate your complaint thoroughly. Please let us know your name, your customer reference number, when your assessment was, who the assessment was with, and the full detail of your complaint.

If you are not satisfied with the response received during stage 1, you can formally escalate your complaint for investigation by outlining the details of the complaint and sending it to the Assessment Centre Manager at UDAC using one of the following methods:

Email: udac@derby.ac.uk

Post: UDAC (University of Derby Assessment Centre)
Student Wellbeing
Kedleston Road
Derby
DE22 1GB

Your complaint will be acknowledged within 3 working days and the Assessment Centre Manager will investigate and provide a written response letting you know the outcome of their investigation within 10 working days, following acknowledgement.

If it is not possible to provide you with an official response within this time frame, we will make contact to advise why we are unable to adhere to the usual time frame and what the new time frame will be. 

If the outcome of the investigation is not satisfactory then concerns can be raised further. The method by which this is done will depend on whether you are a current, or pre-entry, student at The University of Derby or whether you are a student from a different University. 

University of Derby and Pre-Entry Students

If you are a current student at The University of Derby or if you will be joining The University of Derby in the next academic year and the outcome of the investigation is not satisfactory you can raise your concerns by following the University’s Complaints Procedure.

Information on this is available on our Student Complaints page.

Your complaint will then be escalated to the Assistant Registrar of the Student Wellbeing department for further investigation.

Non-University of Derby Students

If you are not a University of Derby student, and the outcome of the investigation is not satisfactory you can raise your concerns by following the University of Derby Complaints Process. 

Your complaint will then be escalated to the Assistant Registrar, Student Wellbeing for further investigation. 

If your complaint is not fully resolved following the completion of stages 1-3 above, then you can contact your funding body to appeal.

The funding body would expect all stages of the above complaint process to have been followed before they would consider an appeal. 

Contact details can be found below:

Student Finance England 

NHS Bursary Students