UTech, Ja Student Handbook 2019-2020

same to the College/Faculty/Department/ School/Unit against whom the complaint is being laid. ii. The complainant shall, upon submitting his/her complaint, record the submission in the log book provided. Log same in the complaints book provided within each School/Department/Faculty/Unit. iii. Where a serious complaint is made against a senior member of staff all efforts should be made to ensure that it is treated with a high level of sensitivity. The complaint should be dealt with by an independent member of the University’s Executive Man- agement team. Where it is a matter related to a member of the Executive Manage- ment Committee it should be referred to the University’s President. B . S T A G E 2 All complaints logged shall be referred to the appropriate Officer within the respective School/Unit/Department/Faculty for action. (Appendix 2) All matters are to be referred within 24 hours of being logged: i. In a Faculty, the appropriate officer is the Programme Director, Head of Department, Head of School, College/Faculty Admin- istrator or Dean. ii. If the complaint relates to an admin- istrative unit, the appropriate officer is the Head of the Unit/Department: iii. The appropriate Officer shall analyze the complaint and seek to either address it personally or refer it to a competent staff member within the Unit/Department/ School/Faculty for resolution iv. The appropriate officer will ensure that he/she has no conflict of interest or bias in relation to any party to the complaint, and that there is no perception by the parties that s/he has a conflict of interest or bias. v. If the person in authority does not believe he/she can handle the complaint in an impartial way, they shall exclude them- selves from the process, and refer the matter to their supervisor. vi. Confidentiality will be respected wherever possible within the constraints of the need to fully investigate the complaint, and matters pertaining to the complaint will not be discussed beyond the parties to the complaint and staff involved in resolving the complaint. vii. Where the appropriate officer deems the complaint as one which cannot be addressed by their Department/Unit/ School/Faculty he/she shall refer same to the Office of the Customer Service Advocate. C . S T A G E 3 i. Where the matter requires an investigation, this should be initiated no later than three (3) working days following assignment to a member of staff by the appropriate Officer. “ E X C E L L E N C E T H R O U G H K N O W L E D G E ” 229 P O L I C Y A N D P R O C E D U R E S F O R H A N D L I N G S T U D E N T C O M P L A I N T S