Learner complaints about providers’ compliance with the Code of Practice

Tertiary education providers and Code signatories are required to have formal processes for handling learner complaints, and to make sure these processes are accessible to learners. This includes any tertiary student accommodation owned by or operated on behalf of your education provider.

If you (the learner) have a complaint about your provider’s compliance with the Code of Practice, you should try and resolve it by using the internal provider process in the first instance.

If your complaint is not resolved, they can take their complaint to one of the following agencies depending on what your complaint is about:

Financial and contractual disputes

Financial and contractual disputes are managed through the relevant Student Contract Dispute Resolution Scheme. Tertiary education providers and Code signatories are required to comply with the Dispute Resolution Scheme Rules. There are two schemes and operators, one for international learners and another for domestic tertiary learners:

iStudent Complaints - for international learners

iStudent Complaints is the appointed operator of the International Student Contract Dispute Resolution Scheme (DRS), which was set up to resolve financial and contractual disputes for international learners.

Find out more about iStudent Complaints

Learn more about the International Student Contract Dispute Resolution Scheme (DRS)

Tertiary Education Dispute Resolution – for domestic tertiary learners

Tertiary Education Dispute Resolution is the appointed operator of the Education (Domestic Tertiary Student Contract Dispute Resolution Scheme (DRS), which was set up to resolve financial and contractual disputes for domestic tertiary learners.

Find out more about Tertiary Education Dispute Resolution via their website, this flyer (PDF, 602KB) and this process flowchart (PDF, 1.4MB).

NZQA

NZQA handles all complaints about alleged non-compliance with the Code of Practice, other than financial and contractual disputes.

Make a complaint about a provider not complying with the Code of Practice.

 
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