Complaints regarding higher education in Flanders
Students who have a complaint regarding their institution or programme have several options for communicating such a complaint.
Flemish institutions have included their internal complaints procedures in their teaching and examination regulations (OER). Irregularities are addressed in two stages. The first step is an internal appeals procedure. When this runs out, the next step is an external appeal to the Appeals Council for Study Progress Decisions (see below). The student is notified of the decision taken following the internal appeals procedure. The complaint is dismissed or leads to a substantiated confirmation or revision.
EXTERNAL APPEALS
Students who – following an internal appeals procedure – consider the study progress decision taken by the institution to be unjustified may lodge an appeal with the Appeals Council for Study Progress Decisions. The Council may disallow an appeal for reasons of inadmissibility and/or baselessness; it may also nullify an unjustified study progress decision and order any provisional remedial measures as required. This means that the Council does not take the place of the examining board.