Student rights - requests, appeals and complaints

Requests and Appeals

Students have the right to defend their interests in various ways. Standard communication between the student and the faculty or designated office for studies takes place by means of requests: the student is asked to submit a request applying for e.g. interruption of studies or an exemption from a Study and Examination Regulations clause, required to explain his/her situation and attach any applicable documentation. In case the application concerns matters listed in section 68, subsection 3 of the Higher Education Act, the faculty shall respond to the request by issuing a decision. Matters concerned include e.g. requests for interruption of studies, course recognition, etc.

The student may request a review of the decision, i.e. lodge an appeal, no later than 30 days following its delivery. The appeal must be submitted to the same body which issued the original decision.

All requests and appeals must include the following information:

• name, surname, student identification number, contact address,
• designation of MU unit or person (addressee),
• designation of the matter in question,
• date and signature.

When submitting a request, the student is obliged to document any matter(s) which are listed in the request but not verifiable via the MU Information System; such matters cannot otherwise be taken into account.

Complaints

Complaints constitute a type of request which may be submitted by a student in order to contact Masaryk University or a component part of MU. They may be used to draw attention to faulty behaviour, procedures or other undesirable matters. Complaints must be submitted in writing either to the faculty registry, by registered mail, in person or in electronic form. In case the complaint is filed electronically, the original must be submitted within five days; the complaint will otherwise be considered invalid.

The submission must clearly constitute a complaint and must include information about the person filing the complaint, the matters concerned and the remedy proposed. The complaint should include information identical to data supplied with a request or appeal (see above).

Complaints are generally to be submitted to a faculty dean or to the Rector. The period for resolving complaints is 60 days from the date of delivery; prior to the end of this period the sender must be informed whether the complaint was assessed as legitimate, how it was processed and whether any corrective measures were implemented in case it was deemed legitimate. In exceptional cases the decision period may be extended up to a maximum of 90 days; this applies to cases which cannot be processed in the allocated period due to their complexity. In such cases, the complainant must be informed of the extension.