Why is the University so complicated?

The University of Melbourne is a public institution. Apart from the fees that you pay to study here, the University also receives funding from the federal government for teaching and to conduct its research. There are a lot of accountability strings attached to this funding, which means a lot of reporting and record keeping obligations.

Universities must comply with:

• National and regional accreditation standards
• Government regulations (e.g., funding, research ethics etc)
• Industrial laws and enterprise agreements

These add administrative layers to ensure compliance and quality assurance.

In addition, universities typically have three core missions:

• Education (teaching students across many disciplines)
• Research (producing new knowledge)
• Public Service (engaging with communities, governments, and industries)

Each mission requires different structures, funding sources, and staff.

The University also offers a wide range of disciplines—from engineering to philosophy-each with its own:

• Departments, centres and faculties
• Curricula and degree requirements
• Professional standards and accreditation bodies

This diversity necessitates decentralised governance and specialised administrative units.

In terms of the standards and accreditation bodies, they govern how and what your faculty needs to teach in a course. Higher education providers must comply with these industry rules in order to receive accreditation for their courses. This is critical to graduates being able to get a job in their chosen profession. For example, students studying to be teachers must have the right skills and qualifications to teach, nursing students are required to have the appropriate skills and qualifications to nurse, and dentistry students have the correct skills and qualifications to dentist. Compliance with these course requirements means that students enrolled in vocational degrees can graduate and go on to be registered as a practitioner in their relevant field.

Just to add another layer, this university is pretty big by any standards. There are over 60,000 students, thousands of professional and academic staff, several campuses and a bunch of international partnerships.

Finally – the University is complicated because all of these things have been building and accumulating over many, many years. This adds a layer of structural complexity born of legacy systems, traditions, resistance to change and organisational blindness.

It’s a lot.

Given the complexity of the structures, you will not be surprised to know that there are different points of escalation for different types of issues.

Let’s consider the main centres of authority or decision-making at the University for students (what we call the big three!).

The faculties

The faculties have authority over anything that involves academic judgement or otherwise requires subject matter (discipline) expertise.

This extends from any decisions regarding admission to the degree you’re studying, decisions about advance standing or credit, any equitable adjustments or alternative arrangements due to Special Consideration and the design and grading of assessments for the subjects you’re enrolled in.

Subject or course coordinators

Subject or course coordinators are usually a good place to start if you have any questions but it’s important to know that although they’re experts in their discipline, they are not necessarily experts in the administrative aspects of how the University organises itself. Nevertheless, start with them, especially if something is related to the subject matter of your course. You can find your subject or course coordinator in the handbook (which you should have bookmarked).

Things can start to get tricky regarding extensions and Special Consideration. Short extensions are handled directly by the faculty and so subject coordinators are a good source of information for those questions. But you can also ask Stop 1 about broader options beyond just a short extension.

Special Consideration is managed by a unit which is part of Student and Scholarly Services (SASS), but you won’t generally be able to engage with them directly.

The Academic Registrar is also the head of SASS (Student and Scholarly Services) which is an administrative unit, separate from the academic units (faculties and schools). SASS oversees the areas of student administration, student services and academic records.

Within SASS you’ll find a lot of departments, including:

• Recruitment and admissions team
• Scholarships team
• Timetabling team
• Stop 1
• Enrolment team
• Exams team
• Academic progress team
• Graduations
• Counselling and Psychological Services
• Safer Community
• Chaplaincy
• Health Service
• Student Equity and Disability Services
• Special Consideration
• Academic Skills
• Office of Student Academic Integrity
• Careers
• Child Care
• Financial Aid
• Student accomodation
• Global Learning (study abroad)
• Library Services
• Student IT

After you have lodged a formal grievance, if you remain dissatisfied with the outcome, the Academic Board is the highest point of escalation to resolve the majority of matters relevant to students. They’re responsible for quality assurance in academic activities such as teaching, learning and research, and comprises a number of specific subcommittees as part of its governance.

Importantly, the Academic Board is the final stop for the student appeals process which is coordinated by the office of the Academic Secretary (also known as the appeals secretary). Requesting an appeal to the Academic Board is a formal process, and we strongly recommend getting advice from us before you lodge anything. We have considerable experience in this area, so it’s worth getting in contact with us to understand how this process works and to get advice on how best to ground your appeal.

Some complaints against university staff - such as allegations of bullying, harassment or sexual misconduct do not go to the Academic Board for review and instead are escalated to the Workplace Relations area of the University which oversees the employment of staff at the University. In some instances, Workplace Relations may refer the matter out to an external investigator, and this can take many months to resolve. The Advocacy Service can support you with these matters, depending on the issue, or make an internal referral to the UMSU Legal Service.

Depends on the issue! Have a look at the table below to see who to contact to resolve your matter locally and how to escalate your issue if they can’t resolve it where the problem first occurred.

This isn’t an exhaustive list and can be confusing so feel free to contact us if you have any questions!

Download the process map here

It’s important to know that depending on your issue, the most appropriate way to escalate a matter might require some thinking and knowledge of the policy, processes and who has the authority to make the decision.

The table above can be overwhelming, but you’re not alone. This is where we (the UMSU Advocacy Service) can help!

There are a few external bodies to the University who might help. Depending on your issue, complaints can be escalated externally to the:

• National Student Ombudsman
• Victorian Ombudsman
• The Administrative Review Tribunal
• Office of the Victorian Information Commissioner
• Victorian Equal Opportunity & Human Rights Commission
• Australian Human Rights Commission

We do have some scope to help you with complaints external to the University, especially if it is to the National Student Ombudsman. Either way, it’s still worth checking in with us to see if you have properly exhausted your escalation points with the University.