Procedures

Procedures

Principles

1.  The following principles will govern the submission and investigation of any academic complaints:

• Confidentiality. Privacy and confidentiality will be assured in the School’s handling of your complaint unless disclosure is necessary to progress it, in which case you will be notified beforehand.
• Protection. The School will take necessary action to avoid victimisation of parties involved in a complaint.
• Frivolous or malicious complaints. If your complaint is considered to be frivolous (unfounded, trivial and persistent) or malicious (with vindictive motivation), then you may be liable for disciplinary action.
• Method. The School will aim to pursue all complaints sensitively and expeditiously.
• Equal Opportunities. All complaints will be considered on their merits and in accordance with the School’s equal opportunities policy.

2.  Informal advice on complaints can be obtained from the Summer Schools & Executive Programmes Unit (SSEP).

Procedures for Consideration of Complaints

3.  These procedures take into account the short length of LSE Executive Education Courses and seek to ensure that, as far as possible, complaints are addressed within the timescale of the programme:

• If you want to make a complaint, you must do so within one week of the incident occurring.
• You must send your complaint in writing to the Executive Programme Office.
• If the complaint relates to an individual with responsibility for considering complaints (Summer School Manager, Head of SSEP), a member of the School’s Legal Team http://www.lse.ac.uk/intranet/LSEServices/legalAndCompliance/Home.aspx will identify an alternative post-holder to undertake these duties.
• The Executive Programme Office will aim to resolve complaints within one week using informal processes.
• If you are not satisfied with the outcome of the investigation you may appeal to the Head of SSEP and the Academic Registrar. 
• In a case where all institutional procedures have been exhausted, the student will be issued with a ‘Completion of Procedures Letter’.
• If, after receiving a Completion of Procedures Letter, the complainant remains dissatisfied with the outcome of his/her complaint, s/he may complain to the Office of the Independent Adjudicator for Higher Education (OIA) in accordance with OIA’s rules (www.oiahe.org.uk). The School shall consider any formal decision or recommendations by the OIA.

Disciplinary Procedures

1.  These procedures take into account the short length of the Executive Education Courses and,as far as possible, seek to address disciplinary matters within the duration of the programme.

Principles

2.  In any disciplinary case, the School encourages those involved to seek informal resolution wherever possible.

3.  In applying these Regulations the School will:

• Confidentiality. Assure privacy and confidentiality in the School’s handling of your complaint unless disclosure is necessary to progress it, in which case you will be notified beforehand.
• Method. Deal with issues with appropriate speed and thoroughness.
• Continue to conduct any disciplinary case where a party has been given due notice of a hearing or deadline, even if that party fails to reply to communications or to attend the hearing.
• Equal Opportunities. Conduct all disciplinary cases on their individual merits and in accordance with the School’s equal opportunity policy.

4.  The School will consider referring incidents to the Police in appropriate circumstances. It will not normally pursue disciplinary action against a student while s/he is the subject of a Police investigation. However, it reserves the right to do so, particularly if a student’s registration is due to expire before the end of criminal proceedings in which s/he is involved.  The School also reserves the right to apply this Procedure after a Police investigation has ended.

Student Code of Conduct

5.  You must conduct yourself in an orderly, responsible and sober manner, and at all times you must respect the rights and view of others. Failure to do so is an offence under this Procedure. The following list, although not exhaustive, provides examples of the kinds of behaviour which will be considered a breach of this Procedure. No registered student of LSE will:

5.1 engage in any act that will, or is likely to, disrupt teaching, study, research or administrative work of the School;

5.2 cause, or threaten to cause, injury to, or endanger the safety of, a member of staff or student of the School, or a visitor to it;

5.3 behave dishonestly;

5.4 engage in any form of conduct or communication that can reasonably be considered to be bullying or harassment of a member of staff or another student, as it is defined by the School's Harassment Policy; http://www.lse.ac.uk/intranet/LSEServices/policies/pdfs/school/harPol.pdf 

5.5 engage in any act that will, or is likely to, damage or deface property of the School;

5.6 engage in any conduct or communication that will, or is likely to, bring the School into disrepute or unjustifiably harm the reputation of a member of it; This includes (but is not limited to) engaging in any behaviour that will contravene the School's Ethics Code http://www.lse.ac.uk/intranet/LSEServices/ethics/home.aspx;

5.7 commit a criminal act on the School’s premises;

5.8 use any of the School’s facilities improperly and/or breach the Conditions of Use of IT Facilities at LSE http://www.lse.ac.uk/intranet/LSEServices/IMT/about/policies/condits.aspx;

5.9 record a lecture, or use such a recording, without the permission of the lecturer concerned.

Process

6.   If a breach of this code of conduct is suspected, then the following process should be followed:

• Where any member of staff or other student of the School believes that a student has committed a breach of the Code, s/he must submit a complaint in writing to the Executive Programme Office. The Executive Programme Manager will investigate the complaint as a matter of urgency.
• The Executive Programme Office will take evidence from the person who has submitted the complaint and from the student against whom the complaint is directed. The student may be advised by the Students’ Union.
• If the complaint is deemed to be minor, it will be referred to the Academic Tutor in the first instance who will attempt to resolve the matter informally.
• If the issue is not resolved or the matter is considered serious, it will be referred to the Executive ProgrammeAcademic Director and an LSE staff member with no affiliation to the SSEP. At this stage the results of the Executive Programme Office investigation will be considered and the student will be given the opportunity to present his/her defence. The Academic Director and LSE staff member will then determine whether the complaint should be upheld and consider if penalties should be imposed.
• The Head of the SSEP is responsible for ensuring the procedure is properly documented and the decision recorded and, where penalties are imposed, will notify the student, in writing, of the decision.

Penalties for Breaches of Disciplinary Regulations

7.  Any, or any combination of the following penalties may be imposed by the Summer School Office for misconduct:

8.  Minor breach of the Code:

• oral reprimand, which may or may not be recorded in a student’s file;
• compensation, in money or money’s worth representing the value of any property damaged and/or a fine.

9.  Major breach of the Code:

• suspension from defined facilities of the School for a specified period;
• disqualification of an examination;
• in extreme cases, expulsion from the Summer School.

Appeals Process

10.  Students may appeal against the outcome of a disciplinary procedure. All appeals must be made in writing to the Summer School Office, and made within 5 working days of receipt of the written decision to impose penalties.

11.  An Appeals Committee will be set up of three individuals, chaired by the Academic Director of the SSEP, to include one person who is a member of the Summer School Board but not directly involved in the case, and one person from LSE who has no involvement with the Summer School nominated by the School’s Legal and Compliance Team.

12.  The student is entitled to attend the Appeals Committee hearing and to be accompanied by a companion. This may be a representative of the LSE Student’s Union. The Companion would normally be expected to observe the process.

13.  The Head of the SSEP is responsible for ensuring the procedure is properly documented and the decision recorded and will inform the student, in writing, of the decision.

14.  In a case where all institutional procedures have been exhausted, the student will be issued with a ‘Completion of Procedures Letter’.

15.  If, after receiving a Completion of Procedures Letter, the complainant remains dissatisfied with the outcome of his/her complaint, s/he may complain to the Office of the Independent Adjudicator for Higher Education (OIA) in accordance with OIA’s rules (www.oiahe.org.uk). The School shall consider any formal decision or recommendations by the OIA.