Using Mediation for resolving University Student Complaints and for other uses within and around a University Community CAOS Conflict Management © Alan Sharland Tel. 0(+44)

University Student Complaints Mediation © Alan Sharland Tel. 0(+44) Has the number of student complaints risen at your University? Do you expect the number to increase in the future? Are you looking for support in handling complaints more effectively, to save costs, reduce stress and optimise the Student Experience?

University Student Complaints Mediation © Alan Sharland Tel. 0(+44) Student Complaints can take a long time to process, lead to stress for students and the University staff involved and risk damage to the University's reputation and its ability to attract students in the future. Complaints can also damage staff morale if they are involved in a long period of investigation as a result. In many instances, mediation offers an alternative that is quicker, non-adversarial and able to give students and staff an opportunity for a less bureaucratic, less intimidating way of resolving a complaint.

University Student Complaints Mediation © Alan Sharland Tel. 0(+44) What are the benefits of introducing mediation into your university? · Mediation reduces the sense of ‘us and them’ when going through a complaints procedure – for both staff and students! · Mediation supports a more cohesive community within the University as it encourages a more co-operative way of dealing with difficulties, whether student complaints or staff disputes. · Mediation provides opportunities for learning, improvement and change in the way the University operates without it having to be shown to have ‘failed’ by an outside body before this change is implemented. · The University’s reputation suffers less damage if a complaint is resolved through mediation

University Student Complaints Mediation © Alan Sharland Tel. 0(+44) Mediation training provides opportunities for staff development and the learning of conflict management skills that can be transferred to other areas of University life “In my 20 years experience as an academic this is the best ‘in-service’ training I have experienced…… The outcomes achieved during, and as a result of, the training have been significant for my own work and my dealings with students and staff on a day to day basis. I have found myself drawing on the work we did in the workshops almost every day. The techniques we were helped to develop have proved invaluable in seminars, practical classes and lectures. I thought I was going to learn about mediation as a separate and distinct mode of operation. Instead the whole process has challenged my most basic interactions with people for the better.” Meretta Elliott, Senior Lecturer, School of Arts, Brunel University In addition, I was also able to make discoveries about my own attitude to conflict. While my primary goal in undertaking this training was to gain the credentials to be a university mediator, the impact this training has had on other aspects of my professional and personal life have been huge. Conflict is inevitable, it is something we encounter regularly, if not every day. I have often wished I had better strategies for dealing with situations of conflict even when this conflict might be considered relatively minor. I highly recommend mediation training to anyone who wishes to gain an insight into conflict and ways of enabling individuals in situations of conflict find meaningful resolution for themselves. In the process, you might just find your own approaches to dealing with personal and professional conflict are re-evaluated and consequently enhanced. Dr Mary Richards - Subject Leader for Drama, Brunel University

University Student Complaints Mediation © Alan Sharland Tel. 0(+44) What are the benefits for students of using Mediation to resolve their complaint? · Mediation can help to maintain working relationships with staff which, if taken through a complaints procedure may be irretrievably damaged, affecting the student’s academic performance and/or their ‘student experience’. · Mediation doesn’t prevent students from continuing with their complaint if it doesn’t lead to a satisfactory outcome – so they have ‘nothing to lose but everything to gain’. · Mediation involves very little bureaucracy. Few, if any, forms are needed to go through the mediation process. · Mediation can be used at any stage in the complaints process meaning it will not ‘hold up’ the complaints procedure, making it safe to ‘give it a go’. · Mediation can lead to a quick resolution of a complaint reducing the level of stress associated with a complaint – for all involved. · Mediation is a confidential process and so a student can discuss things which they may not want to have to bring up in a hearing or other more public forum.

University Student Complaints Mediation © Alan Sharland Tel. 0(+44) As students move more and more towards being ‘customers’ or ‘consumers’ of their University education experience, mediation can greatly improve the sense of customer care given by a University, while, at the same time, allowing staff to communicate their reasonable expectations of students in order to help them succeed in their studies, and in making the best use of their university experience.

Using Mediation more widely in a University Community © Alan Sharland Tel. 0(+44) But mediation is not limited to use in just the resolution of Student Complaints within a University Community. It can also be used for the following purposes, and our training can prepare staff to mediate in all of these: Harassment / bullying issues amongst staff and students. Staff-staff workplace disputes Student-student disputes, for example in accommodation blocks Student-community disputes, for example where local residents feel disturbed by student residences and/or behaviours

University Student Complaints Mediation © Alan Sharland Tel. 0(+44) CAOS Conflict Management works with Universities to provide conflict management training, mediation and/or conflict coaching or it provides training of University staff to become Mediators or Conflict Coaches for an 'in-house' service. Alan Sharland and/or his Associates at CAOS have worked with the following Universities (July 2012): Brunel University, West London Plymouth University, South West England School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), London University of East London De Montfort University, Leicester Kingston University Please contact us on to find out how your University could benefit from mediation or send Alan an at: