At Quincy College, we attempt to resolve student complaints within our academic and administrative departments. Online and distance education students who have a grievance or complaint related to online programs may submit a written grievance or complaint to onlineprograms@quincycollege.edu.
The complaint will be forwarded to the appropriate academic or administrative department and an email response will be sent to the student informing that the grievance or complaint was received and further inform that the issue is being reviewed. Dependent upon the nature of the grievance or complaint, Quincy College will attempt to resolve the issue quickly.
In the event that the student is not satisfied with the outcome of the Quincy College’s complaint resolution process, online students may still be able to appeal the outcome to other governmental agencies. Quincy College is required to notify online students who are Massachusetts residents that they may utilize the Massachusetts Department of Higher Education’s Consumer Complaint Form.
The DHE in its capacity as the State Authorization Reciprocity Agreement (SARA) portal entity for Massachusetts, also reviews and evaluates student complaints regarding distance learning programs offered by Massachusetts- based institutions that are members of SARA. Online students who live in SARA member states outside of Massachusetts and take courses at Quincy College 100% online must first attempt to resolve their grievance or complaint using Quincy College’s internal complaint process as specified in Policy 6.14 Student Grievance Procedure contained in the Quincy College Policy Manual.
Upon exhausting Quincy College’s internal process, online students who live in another state and take courses at Quincy College 100% online may submit a SARA Complaint to the Massachusetts Department of Higher Education. Please note that complaints about student grades and student conduct violations are expressly excluded from the SARA complaint process. For information about the DHE’s SARA complaint process, please visit the DHE website and its Complaint Policy and Process.
Original: January 2020