Tricia Hennessy is the Director of the Commonwealth Ombudsman’s Students team, which is responsible for the Overseas Students Ombudsman function.
The Commonwealth Ombudsman:
· can investigate complaints about problems that intending, current or former overseas students have with private schools, colleges and universities (education providers) in Australia
· provides information about best practice complaints handling to help private education providers manage internal complaints effectively
· publishes reports on problems and broader issues in international education that we identify through investigations.
The Ombudsman’s Office has investigated more than 1,000 complaints from international students, giving them a unique insight into the problems that international students can face, and what can be done about them.
The Commonwealth Ombudsman has a special role in considering complaints from international students about disputes they are having with their private education provider. The Ombudsman assisted over 1000 students to resolve their disputes with their providers, helping providers to improve their policies in the process.
But in many cases, students who have problems with their providers don’t know what to do, so they approach their education agents. How can education agents help students resolve these disputes? In her talk, Tricia Hennessy from the Commonwealth Ombudsman will explain the complaints process for students, and how education agents can guide students through it.
Tricia will also touch on complaints made about education agents from international students, including how the Ombudsman can investigate the actions or decisions of education agents.
Education agents will leave this session confident in their knowledge of how to help international students work out problems with their providers, and which agencies they can approach for help.