9Student grievance requirements—grievance procedure

9 Student grievance requirements—grievance procedure

(1) This section is made for the purposes of clause 19 of Schedule 1A of the Act. (2) A VET provider must have a grievance procedure to deal with complaints from its previous VET students about academic matters and non-academic matters. (3) The grievance procedure must: (a) be clearly and prominently published on the VET provider’s website; and (b) clearly set out the stages of the procedure; and (c) encourage the timely resolution of complaints, including by specifying reasonable periods for dealing with each stage of the procedure; and (d) contain the internal and external stages referred to in subsections (4) and (5); and (e) clearly provide that there is no charge for the internal stage, and that any charges for the external stage will be reasonable. (4) The internal stage of the grievance procedure must include: (a) a process for the lodging and hearing of a formal complaint; and (b) a requirement for written notice of a decision on the formal complaint to be given to the complainant, with the notice to include: (i) the reasons for the decision; and (ii) advice about how to appeal the decision; and (c) a process for appealing the decision to an independent senior officer of the VET provider, or to an internal committee or unit with appropriate expertise; and (d) a requirement for written notice of the decision on appeal to be given to the appellant, with the notice to include: (i) the reasons for the decision; and (ii) advice about how to have the decision reviewed; and (e) a provision enabling each party to this stage of the procedure to be accompanied or assisted by another person, at that party’s cost. (5) The external stage of the grievance procedure must include: (a) a process for having a decision on appeal reviewed by an external and independent person or body with appropriate expertise; and (b) a provision enabling each party to the review to be accompanied or assisted by another person at the review, at that party’s cost; and (c) a requirement for written notice of the decision on review to be given to each party, with the notice to include the reasons for the decision. (6) The VET provider must comply with its grievance procedure, and have mechanisms in place: (a) to implement decisions from the grievance procedure; and (b) to give due consideration to any recommendations arising from the external stage of the grievance procedure; and