Appeals and complaints

Appeals

You may be able to appeal against an assessment decision. Before making an appeal we recommend that you speak to a member of staff from your course to help clarify whether an appeal is the correct step. You may also find it useful to speak to the Students' Union. 

If you do decide to make an appeal you will need to send an appeal form within 20 working days of the publication of the decision. A panel will review your appeal and the school's response. 

If you wish to appeal an academic decision, please use the forms below. You must submit all medical and other evidence with your appeal form. It is not sufficient to tell us that the evidence is available on request.

• Appeal Form (docx, 60.7 kB)
• Appeal to VC Form (docx, 55.2 kB)

A full description of the appeals process can be found in our Code of Practice for Assessment:

• Section 58: Appeals Policy 2023-24 (PDF 0.2 MB)

Complaints

York St John University is committed to giving its students the best learning experience it can. It prides itself on being a responsive and supportive organisation and in listening to its students. We recognise that sometimes you may encounter problems. The policy and procedure below explain how to submit a complaint and what will happen. Please use the complaints form provided. Further information on the complaints process can be found on the Concerns about your university experience page.

• Student Complaints Procedure (PDF, 0.1MB)
• Formal Complaint Form (DOC, 57.7 kB)
• Complaint Review Form (DOC, 55.3 kB)

You can expect the university to:

• Offer you the opportunity to express your opinions on course delivery and your experience at York St John
• Let you know what has been done in response to your feedback
• Treat any complaint seriously, seek to resolve the problem and respect your confidentiality
• Ensure that you are not treated unfairly because you have provided feedback or made a complaint
• Seek to learn from any complaints by reviewing them as part of the University’s quality procedures.

You are expected to:

• Contribute your views constructively through student evaluation surveys and directly to your faculty
• Keep your Students’ Union representatives informed of any concerns or suggestions for improvement
• Approach the service or faculty directly and give them the chance to put things right
• Try to sort out any complaints informally and directly with the service or school concerned in the first instance
• Seek the assistance of a student representative or the Students’ Union to help resolve the problem
• Contact casework@yorksj.ac.uk if you cannot resolve the problem directly.

You can expect the Students’ Union to:

• Represent your views at relevant University committees
• Give you the opportunity to provide feedback on both the University and the Students’ Union
• Seek your feedback to enhance the services provided by the Union
• Offer advice, support and representation if you need to complain about the university
• Collaborate with the university on an annual review of complaints made.

Data Protection

For information on how the University will process your personal data when you submit an appeal or complaint form, please see the following privacy notice:

• Student Casework Privacy Notice (0.1MB)

You can find out more about data protection at York St John University by visiting our Data Protection page.