What we offer

OxCHEPS Higher Education Mediation Service

What we offer to students, employees and their HEIs

Both the Committee on Standards in Public Life in its Second Report and the Dearing Committee recommended that there should be provision for independent review of disputes involving students, and also of disputes between higher education institutions (HEIs) and their staff which had arisen from the making of public interest disclosures. Such provision is again called for in the White Paper of 2003, The Future of Higher Education (Cm 5735). The setting up of a final-stage avenue of recourse is now well in hand, in the form of the new Higher Education Ombudsman/Adjudicator. | Mediation Links |

There is, in addition, much to be said for encouraging the parties to such disputes to use the various forms of alternative dispute resolution (ADR) now on offer. This is common sense and the courts encourage it, particularly mediation. | What is ‘mediation’?’ | Indeed, if one of the parties refuses to attempt mediation when the other is willing, costs sanctions may follow.

This new service is complementary to the newly created Higher Education Ombudsman and to universities’ own internal procedures. Mediation can be attempted at any stage from the very beginning of a dispute, in the midst of litigation, or even during a trial. Crucially, it can commence only by the mutual consent of those involved, and, if it fails, the parties remain free to proceed by any of the other avenues of recourse available to them. We believe this will be a timely and valuable new service for UK HEIs, their students and their employees. | Media interest |

OxCHEPS Higher Education Mediation Service is provided by OxCHEPS, the Oxford Centre for Higher Education Policy Studies | OxCHEPS Home Page |, which is based at New College, Oxford, and directed by David Palfreyman MA MBA LLB (Bursar and Fellow, New College), but is not formally a part of either New College, nor of the University of Oxford. OxCHEPS is non-profit and entirely independent, and is funded solely by its own earnings from seminars, publications, consultancy, and charitable donations. The Mediation Service is run jointly by David Palfreyman and Professor G.R. Evans, MA PhD DLitt LittD HonDLitt FRHistS FRSA, a non-practising Barrister, former Public Policy Secretary of the Council for Academic Freedom and Standards, and Professor of Medieval Theology and Intellectual History in the University of Cambridge.

The Mediation Service will offer:

*A panel of specialist mediators. | Mediation Panel |

*Identification of a suitable mediator for a modest fee, with provision to enable the parties to be put in touch with him or her. | Arranging mediation |

*Provision of training days for those wishing to qualify as specialist HE mediators. (NB: We reserve the right not to include on the Panel all those who attend the training days.) | Mediator training |
As the service establishes itself we intend to seek Law Society and Bar Council accreditation for our training courses, and also to seek to ensure that our OxCHEPS mediators are acceptable as court-approved mediators for HE cases.

* In due course we hope to provide advice and a forum for the exchange of information for universities seeking to set up in-house mediation provision. This is intended to include drawing upon the experience of universities in Canada and the United States which run ombudsman and related mediation services. | Mediation Links |

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