Complaints about us

Complaints about how we deliver our service

If you are unhappy or dissatisfied with our service, you can let us know.

The National Student Ombudsman’s service commitment is part of the Commonwealth Ombudsman Service Charter.

This sets out the service standards you can expect from us.

If you believe our service has not met the standards in the Service Charter, you can use our enquiry form and select ‘provide feedback or make a complaint about the office’.

For us to consider your concerns about our service, we need you to clearly explain what happened and when, who was involved and why you are unhappy.

We will assess your complaint against our Service Charter and tell you the outcome.

We aim to respond to service delivery complaints within 30 days.

Outcomes may include an apology, speaking to a Senior Officer about your concerns, or a better explanation of our process or service.

We are committed to using your feedback to improve our service delivery.

Reconsideration and Review of our decisions

If you believe that the decision made by our Office about your complaint is wrong, you can ask us for a reconsideration.

Requesting a re-consideration is the first step if you believe our decision is wrong or unclear.

You will need to email or call the officer who made the decision and clearly explain why you think the decision is wrong or unclear and provide any relevant information.

You will need to identify why you disagree with the NSO’s decision rather than the provider’s actions you originally complained about.

The officer who handled your complaint will look at the original decision and consider the concerns you have raised, check for errors or oversights and consider any new or relevant information you provide.

The officer will check the information and explain their findings to you.

If you still believe that we have made an error in our decision or that something has gone wrong, you can submit a formal request for review.

Your request for review should describe the reasons why you believe we were wrong and include any relevant supporting information. A review is not appropriate where you disagree with a decision without a reason.

Being unhappy with a decision or saying it is not fair is not grounds for a review. The review must be about the NSO decision rather than your provider’s actions.

This should be submitted in writing within three months from the date we advise you of our original decision.

To submit a request for review you will need to go to our enquiry form and select  ‘Request a review of a decision made by the office’.

To ensure the process is accessible to all, options such as submitting by phone or in person are also available, visit our Contact us page for office location and phone details.

We consider all review requests; however, we do not grant every request for review.

If we do not accept the review request, we will tell you and explain why.

If we accept the review request, the review will be conducted by an officer with no prior involvement in your case.

The officer will consider whether:

• the original officer properly considered the issues you raised
• their decision was the right one
• they explained their reasons clearly and considered your response.

We will consider the information you provide and inform you whether we will proceed with a review within 15 business days.

We aim to complete the review within 2 months of a request being received. This timeframe may be extended where/if additional information is required or where the matter is more complex.

We will always tell you the outcome, and we will only review a decision once.