We’re really sorry you want to complain about the Union, but we value all feedback and take your opinions very seriously. Every year we support and serve thousands of students, and whilst we’d like to get it right every time, we know we are not perfect. But we aim to be.

This is why we have a complaints procedure. Sometimes we can put things right for you straight away. Sometimes, we can only explain the reasons why we’ve fallen short and apologise. But we want to learn from our mistakes and what you tell us, helps us improve our services to you. We will treat your complaint confidentially, seriously and quickly. This means that only Union staff involved in any investigation will be aware of your complaint. If your complaint is of a serious nature, e.g. there is a risk to others or the law has been broken, in some circumstances, we may have to involve other appropriate parties. How we handle informal complaints is detailed in our complaints bye-law.

Making informal complaints

You have several options of how to give us feedback or register complaint:

• If you feel comfortable to do so, speak directly to the manager of the service you are complaining about.
• Complete an informal complaint form on this page below.
• Contact SU_Complaints@winchester.ac.uk who will refer you to the right person or pass on your complaint.

After your complaint is made

We aim to acknowledge all complaints swiftly and seek a resolution within 5 working days of the matter being passed to the correct staff member.

If your complaint is upheld, you will get a full apology. If it’s appropriate, we will let you know details of what we are doing to put things right.

Where appropriate, and if the complaint involves another student, you may be offered independent mediation to help resolve the situation.

We may refer your complaint to our formal complaint procedure (for example if we find it to be a more complex complaint).

If you are unhappy with our response to your complaint, you can refer it to our formal complaint procedure as well.

If you need any independent support through this process, please contact the University's student life advice team.