Students, alumni, faculty members, team members or other stakeholders, individually or collectively, who are directly affected administratively or academically by actions by one of the institution’s current students, faculty members or team members, have the right to contact the institution to discuss their issue, or to submit a formal complaint to the institution.

All issues must first be addressed personally in order to attempt to reach an agreement amicably before starting the formal complaint procedure. Complaints that were not already addressed personally will not be considered formal. Complaints should be submitted in a written format no later than 4 weeks after the cause of the complaint first came up. Complaints that were received more than 4 weeks after the cause of the complaint first came up will not be considered, except when the individual or group was unable to submit the complaint due to circumstances beyond their control, or except when the individual or group was unable to submit the complaint due to an ongoing previous internal dispute procedure.

Complaints may be submitted by regular mail to United Institute, Brandschenkestrasse 38, 8001 Zurich, Switzerland; digitally by e-mail to [email protected]; or digitally through the Cualificam public mailbox in case the complaint is related to our Professional Master programs.

The complaint should at minimum include the name(s), address(es), place(s) of residence, phone number(s) and e-mail address(es) of the individual(s) affected, as well as the date of the letter, a clear description of the administrative and/or academic issues to which the complaint relates, the time(s) and date(s) at which the cause of the complaint came up, and a report from the initial personal meeting(s) in an attempt to resolve the matter amicably.

Complaints will be for a period of 2 years and will be handled confidentially typically within a period of 4 weeks. All complaints are processed by the Quality Assurance Officer, who, following the receipt of a complaint, will schedule a meeting with the individual or a representative of the group to discuss the cause and desired outcomes. The representative of the group has to be one of the affected individuals; Proxies are not accepted in the complaint procedure to allow for an amicable resolution. The Quality Assurance Officer in turn will liaise internally with other persons and bodies as applicable, depending on the type of complaint, and revert back to the individual or group with a decision. Responses include at minimum the grounds for the decision.

Assessment-related complaints are addressed by the Dean.

Education-related and other complaints are addressed by the Quality Assurance Officer.

Should the response not be considered sufficient by the individual or group, the response can be appealed by informing the Quality Assurance Officer within 1 week of receipt of the response. One further meeting will be scheduled with the individual or group, the Quality Assurance Officer and the Managing Director, as well as the Chair of the Examination Committee if applicable, after which the student is provided another response, which may or may not be different from the first.

In case the procedure is inadequate to resolve the complaint, an independent Appeals Committee, composed of 3 external members, is considered competent.