Last week, the U of T Ombudsperson presented their annual report to the Governing Council surveying complaints made to the office during the 2011-2012 year.
The Ombudsperson is an impartial official who deals with university complaints and aims to offer fair and reasonable solutions to them. The report gives an overview of the systemic issues that affected the U of T population last year as well as a statistical overview of their users, the nature of proffered assistance, and the outcomes.
Issues highlighted in the report include international fee exemptions, program fee refunds, academic integrity matters, discrimination, grading policies, student health plans and graduate supervision.
Overall, the report makes no formal recommendations on any issue, and states that university and union officials have acted in a speedy manner to help resolve many of them. The report also gives information on outreach activities undertaken by the office and describes efforts to spread awareness of their services to students.
The Governing Council’s official response to the report states that they have drafted new policies to deal with the issues presented and commends the Ombudsperson in its fair dealings of the complex issues presented in the report.
— Vipasha Shaikh
Sources: BBC, The Guardian
