Complaining about Student Union misconduct

How the complaint route works

Complaining about a students’ union is different from complaining about your university, because a students’ union is normally a separate legal entity with its own charitable status and its own internal procedures. That affects both who you complain to and who can review the union if it gets things wrong. The key point is that a students’ union is required by law to have a proper complaints procedure, and if that procedure itself is defective or its staff are the problem, there are still routes upwards through the university and the union’s regulators.

Start by identifying exactly what the problem is, because the correct route depends on it. There is a difference between a complaint about a decision or service (for example being refused membership of a society, mistreatment by union staff, a badly handled disciplinary process, or misuse of union funds) and a complaint that the union has breached its legal or constitutional obligations. There is also a difference between poor service and actual unlawful conduct. Not every unhelpful or unfair-feeling response is a breach of law or of the union’s rules, so it helps to pin down which specific rule, obligation or standard you say has been broken.

The union’s own complaints procedure and the independent person

Under section 22 of the Education Act 1994, the governing body of your university has a legal duty to ensure the students’ union operates fairly and democratically and is accountable for its finances. That section requires the university to secure a written constitution for the union, approved by the governing body and reviewed periodically, and to ensure the union has a proper complaints procedure.

Crucially for your situation, section 22 requires that there be a complaints procedure available to students and groups of students who are dissatisfied in their dealings with the union or claim to be unfairly disadvantaged by reason of not being members. That procedure must include provision for an independent person, appointed by the university’s governing body, to investigate and report on complaints. Complaints must be dealt with promptly and fairly, and where a complaint is upheld there must be an effective remedy.

This independent person is the mechanism designed precisely for the case where the union’s own staff or procedures are the problem. If you cannot get a fair hearing internally, or the people you would normally complain to are the ones at fault, you can ask for the matter to go to the independent person appointed under the union’s constitution or the university’s code of practice.

Practical order of steps

1. Read the union’s constitution and its published complaints procedure, and the university’s Education Act 1994 code of practice on the students’ union. These documents set out the stages, deadlines and the identity or route to the independent person. They are usually on the union and university websites.

2. Put your complaint in writing to the union at the first formal stage, even if you have doubts about it, unless the procedure allows you to escalate immediately because of a conflict of interest. Making a clear written complaint creates a record and usually a right to escalate if the response is inadequate. Set out the facts in date order, identify what rule or standard you say was breached, explain the impact on you, and state the remedy you want.

3. If the staff or officers who would ordinarily handle it are the subject of the complaint, say so expressly and ask for it to be dealt with by someone independent, referring to the independent person requirement under section 22 and the code of practice. Ask that anyone with a conflict of interest be excluded from handling it.

4. If the internal outcome is unsatisfactory or the procedure has not been followed, escalate to the independent person appointed by the university’s governing body, and to the university itself under its oversight duty.

Escalating to the university

Because the university has a continuing legal duty to ensure the union operates fairly and has an effective complaints procedure, you can raise the matter with the university where the union has failed to deal with you properly. Complain to the office responsible for the union relationship, often the Registrar, Governance, or Student Affairs, arguing that the union has not met its section 22 obligations. The university can be pressed to require the union to comply with its own constitution and code of practice.

The Office of the Independent Adjudicator

The OIA runs the student complaints scheme for higher education in England and Wales, but its powers over students’ unions are limited. Generally the OIA cannot look at complaints about the actions of an independent student representative body, because the union is a separate entity. However, the OIA can consider a complaint where the union is part of the legal entity of the higher education provider, or where the complaint concerns the provider’s own obligations in respect of its students’ union.

In practice this means that if your real grievance is that the university has failed in its duty to ensure the union has and follows a fair complaints procedure, that can potentially be brought within the OIA scheme as a complaint about the provider. To use the OIA you normally need to exhaust the university’s internal procedures first and obtain a Completion of Procedures Letter. Where the university has considered a complaint about the union, it should issue that letter at the end of the process, which then opens the door to the OIA within its time limits.

The Charity Commission

Most students’ unions are registered charities or are treated as charities, and are regulated by the Charity Commission. The Commission does not resolve individual grievances or service complaints and will not intervene in ordinary disputes. However, it is the right route if your concern is about serious governance or financial misconduct, for example misuse of charitable funds, trustees acting outside the union’s charitable objects, serious conflicts of interest, or a serious failure of governance. If your complaint is really about maladministration affecting you personally rather than charity mismanagement, the Charity Commission is unlikely to act, and the internal and university routes are more appropriate.

The Office for Students

The Office for Students regulates registered higher education providers, not students’ unions directly. It does not handle individual student complaints. It can, however, be relevant where there is a systemic failure by the university to meet its regulatory conditions, including conditions touching on the union and on freedom of speech. This is a route for broad regulatory concerns rather than resolving a personal grievance, and should not be your first port of call.

Where the problem is union staff specifically

If a named member of union staff has behaved improperly, distinguish between a service complaint and an employment or conduct matter. You are entitled to complain about how you were treated and to expect the union to investigate under its complaints procedure and, where appropriate, its staff conduct or HR processes. You are not entitled to control the outcome of any internal staff disciplinary process, and the union may be limited in what it can tell you about action taken against an employee for data protection and confidentiality reasons. Frame your complaint around the effect on you and the remedy you want, rather than demanding a particular sanction against an individual.

If the conduct was potentially unlawful, for example harassment or discrimination on a protected characteristic under the Equality Act 2010, say so and set out the facts that support it, because equality duties give you additional leverage and potential remedies. Be careful to distinguish genuinely unlawful conduct from conduct that was merely unhelpful, rude or procedurally clumsy, as these lead to different routes and outcomes.

Evidence to gather

Keep a dated record of what happened, copies of all correspondence, the relevant constitution and complaints procedure, any decisions or minutes, and the names and roles of those involved. Note the impact on you and any losses. If you make a subject access request for your own personal data held by the union, this can help you obtain relevant records, though it is a data right rather than a complaint route in itself.

Realistic expectations and strategy

Internal resolution followed by the independent person is usually the quickest and most proportionate route, and it is also the route that most external bodies will expect you to have used first. Regulators such as the Charity Commission and the Office for Students deal with governance and systemic failings, not personal grievances, so pitch complaints to them only where the facts genuinely raise those wider issues. The OIA is available mainly through the university’s obligations rather than against the union directly. Court action against a students’ union is possible in principle but is rarely proportionate for the kinds of grievance students usually have, given cost, delay and enforceability, and it is normally a last resort after the internal, independent person and ombudsman-type routes have been exhausted.

Key missing facts

The best route depends on details you have not given. It would help to know which specific union decision or conduct you are complaining about, whether the problem is a one-off service failure or a breach of the union’s constitution or the law, whether the union is a separately incorporated charity or part of the university’s legal entity, whether you have already used the internal procedure, and whether any protected characteristic or financial impropriety is involved. Those facts determine whether the independent person, the university, the OIA or the Charity Commission is the right destination.