Formal provider complaints:
An update on NZQA's processes

Michael Steer	�
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Advice from the Qualifications Authority reminds students of that fact and that they have rights under consumer legislation. The Qualifications Authority deals with complaints where a provider's internal processes have not led to a satisfactory resolution.

Currently, the sanctions that the Qualifications Authority can apply to a provider following a complaint investigation are restricted to the removal of registration, course approval or accreditation. Rarely is the complaint alone serious enough to justify the cancellation of registration, approval or accreditation. In some cases where the complaints are justified and the provider puts in place mechanisms to avoid repetition, this will be sufficient to satisfy the requirements of the Qualifications Authority. Students may, however, still feel dissatisfied because their personal situation has not been resolved.

In many cases the complainant's objective in lodging a complaint is to gain some kind of compensation for perceived poor quality training or service. The focus of AAA's investigation of complaints, however, is to ensure that the provider is continuing to comply with registration and accreditation requirements. AAA is not in a position to require compensation to be paid to students and proposed revisions to the Education Act currently before parliament were not designed to provide the Qualifications Authority with additional powers of this sort.

What the Qualifications Authority can do

The Qualifications Authority's role in investigating complaints is derived from its powers to grant, refuse or withdraw registration, course approval or accreditation. In line with these powers, the Authority has established standards and criteria that providers must comply with. Complaints are one source of information that enables the Authority to identify potential areas of poor performance and hence monitor quality of delivery and provider effectiveness. We actually have no power to mediate or require actions with regard to individual complaints or disputes. All we can do is to require that providers take certain action if they wish to retain their registered status.

Provider requirements

The Quality Assurance Standard for private training establishments, government training establishments and wananga requires providers to supply adequate and appropriate information and support services to and for students. There is also a specific requirement of providers that complaints procedures are made known to learners, including details of:

The Qualifications Authority introduced the audit process in late 2000. This, along with the revision of the Quality Assurance Standard, considerably strengthened the focus on the quality of delivery and support within private training establishments. It appears that the number of complaints about providers has significantly decreased since the audit process was introduced.

Review of complaints processes

There have been three reviews of the Qualifications Authority's complaints process in the past two years.

Significant progress has been made in clearing outstanding complaints. The "cleanup" of old files is virtually complete and attention is now turning towards refining the policies and documentation around the receipt and recording of complaints. In addition:

Assurance for students

The Qualifications Authority has a number of ways to help ensure the quality of education and training received by students.

General requirements have been set within the Quality Assurance Standard on a wide range of areas, to ensure the quality of education and training. Providers must have information available and processes in place for dealing with complaints. AAA's audits include interviews with students to gain information on the quality and effectiveness of the provider from their perspective. Any complaints raised by students are investigated and students are advised of the outcome.

An 0800 number (0800 QA HELP) has been running since last year and is publicised (for example, in careers publications) for students to call free and obtain information about any area of concern.

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Of course, students do have other legal avenues under consumer protection legislation and there have been many cases in recent years where students have sought and gained legal redress through the courts and other tribunals.

The Qualifications Authority treats complaints from students very seriously. Resource constraints in the past have meant we have not been able to improve our processes as much as we would have liked. However this has changed as evidenced by the latest review.

Complaints about providers in 2002

To 13 November 2002 165 complaints about providers were received by the Qualifications Authority. Complaints predominantly fall into one of the following categories. It is difficult to precisely quantify the number of complaints within each category because one complaint may cross more than one category. Complaints are generally about:

Of the 165 complaints received, 22 were closed off without investigation due to a lack of authorisation from the complainant to proceed. If a complainant chooses not to proceed, an assessment is made about following up any possible underlying causes through the next scheduled audit. Four of the 165 complaints were passed to the New Zealand Polytechnic Programmes Committee for follow up.