A university stuffed up a student’s right to graduate for more than a decade – and would have got away with it if the National Student Ombudsman had not got involved.
The NSO reports an unnamed university where “administrative failures” stopped Chloe graduating in a degree she had completed for more than ten years. What inexplicably only appears deep in the document is that “at no time was Chloe informed of a 10-year limitation on degree conferral or graduation eligibility.”
The Ombudsman’s description of how this happened is a chronicle of institutional incompetence and expressions of indifference that started when Chloe completed the un-named university’s degree via Open Universities Australia and applied to graduate in 2012.
“At the time, University staff informed Chloe that there was a unique process for OUA graduates; the staff member responsible for handling OUA graduations was on leave and would be in contact with her upon their return,” the Ombudsman reports.
They didn’t contact her then, or later, as Chloe – who appears a person of admirable patience and persistence – had multiple goes at getting her degree conferred.
In 2027-18 both the university and OUA told her the other was responsible but neither “followed through to ensure Chloe’s degree was conferred through the appropriate graduation process.”
She asked the university again in December 2023 and got a response in September ’25 which stated:
- She could not have her degree due to ten year cut-off
- Her enrolment had been changed to a variation of her original course, despite her asking for this not to happen, but the university would not investigate this as it would not change her not being conferred her degree
- That “there were complex administrative and compliance related challenges between OUA and the University around the time of Chloe’s enrolment”
At which point the Ombudsman was in business and Chloe got in touch.
And so the university awarded her the degree, acknowledged failings and accepted Ombudsman recommendations. But in its apology, there is no mention of the income Chloe could have earned on the basis of her qualification she was wrongly denied, or indeed the HELP debt she coped while she did not get what she paid for. And contrition is spectacularly understated in the anonymous university’s admission, “conferral processes weren’t entirely transparent leading to difficulties for Chloe’s degree being awarded.”
But while the report names OUA, the university’s reputation is protected. As the Commonwealth Ombudsman responds:
“To prevent impacting future engagement between the student and the university in the implementation of the recommendations, the NSO has removed references to the specific university and the student's name in the report.”
If there is a way to ensure the university never treats students so badly again, this is not it.