Complaints (Grievance)

We are sorry that you are feeling as though you need to even look at this page.

We are committed to providing the best possible experience for our members. Your feedback is vital to ensuring we can do this. We would like to encourage you to resolve any issues via informal routes if possible.

Before submitting a complaint (grievance), we would like you to think about the following questions: 

• Have you tried to resolve the grievance informally?
• What would you like to complain about?
• What would an effective resolution of your grievance be?

To submit a grievance, please see the following links:

• To submit a grievance about an Elected Officer, your Students' Union as a collective, or a member of UPSU Staff, please click here.

• To submit a grievance about individual members of a UPSU Student Group or a Student Group itself, please click here.

We ask you to be as explicit as possible about the reasons and incidents that have led to your grievance as well as answering the above questions.

Your grievance will be acknowledged within 3 working days and we will give you an indicative timeline on how long it will take to investigate your grievance or further details we may require.

The full UPSU Student Grievances and Disciplinary Procedure is available here.

Please note - this grievance procedure does NOT apply to the following:

• If your grievance is about a Course Rep, follow a separate University policy available here.
• If your grievance is about the University of Portsmouth (staff or as a collective body), follow University policy available here.
• If your grievance is about a University of Portsmouth Student who is not detailed in the grievance form (e.g. not members of Student Groups - under UPSU or S&R remit, Elected Volunteers or Sabbatical Officers), follow University policy available here.

Our members can also seek advice from the UPSU Advice Service.

UPSU will ensure that anyone raising a grievance will not be discriminated against or suffer any disadvantage as a result of raising genuine concerns. However, any frivolous or malicious grievances that are raised (as determined by an impartial member of staff), if you are abusive in the tone of your communications or towards staff dealing with your grievance, or if your communications become so frequent/continuous that it is not possible for the staff dealing with your grievance to work effectively and efficiently, UPSU will deal with the matter seriously under the UoP student code of behaviour.

UPSU will wherever possible, retain your anonymity while handling your grievance; however, in the law regarding evidence and disclosure, all evidence submitted must be presented to the person about whom a grievance is made. While UPSU will keep this on an anonymous basis we cannot prevent assumptions being made from the evidence presented.

Grievances should be raised within a reasonable timeframe, or as soon as you found out about the problem. Grievances can only be considered if it's still possible to investigate the grievance.