Programmes & Qualifications

Our standards

Feedback and complaints

We value feedback as it gives us an opportunity to improve the way we work and the service we provide to customers. We thoroughly investigate every complaint we receive and will respond as quickly as possible. Our aim is to identify the root cause and take appropriate action to improve our processes and the services we offer.

What is a complaint?

A complaint is a formal statement that something is unsatisfactory or unacceptable about a service or product provided by us.

For further information on our complaints process, please refer to the option that relates to you below:

Learners and parents

We want to help learners and parents as much as possible but some questions or complaints will need to be raised with your school or learning provider. We think that it is better to advise you of this now, so that your concern or complaint can be investigated and resolved as quickly as possible. We can accept complaints from learners and parents regarding a service that we have offered directly to you, such as a Certifying Statement or a Verification of results service. If however your complaint relates to the administration of exams, please see below.

Complaints about your school, college or learning provider

As an assessment provider we are not involved in the day-to-day administration of Cambridge registered schools. Any concerns regarding the teaching, facilities or administration of exams at schools must be directed to the school or learning provider concerned. The exceptions to this are where you have evidence that someone has committed malpractice – view information on how to report suspected malpractice – or, if you would like to contact the Cambridge International Safeguarding team, you can email us at safeguarding@cambridgeinternational.org.
All Cambridge schools are required to have a complaints policy. At any point during the investigation of a complaint, your school, college or learning provider can get in touch with us for more information, support or advice. If you have exhausted your school’s complaints policy and still wish to contact us you may do so. However, there may be issues, such as fee disputes or processes administered by the school, which we cannot become involved in as this is outside of our remit.

Complaints about results and grading

We have an agreement with our schools that they will always communicate directly with their candidates about the administration of exams, including results.
If you are unhappy with your results or feel that they are incorrect, your teacher or exams officer will be able to clearly explain the options available and can contact us on your behalf. Please be aware that concerns about results will only be considered when they are submitted as an Enquiry about Results request through the formal process that our schools can access.

Cambridge schools

If you wish to raise a complaint, please see the information below under the heading ‘How do I make a complaint?’. However, there are some matters that cannot be dealt with as a complaint.

Concerns about results will only be considered when they are submitted as an enquiry about results through the formal process as described in the Cambridge Handbook and within the deadlines stated. We provide a range of enquiries about sesults services and these will be the subject of a fee unless the enquiry leads to a change in the candidate’s overall syllabus grade.
During the live exam series, we are not able to respond to complaints about a live question paper. This is because we have not yet completed our marking and grading process. Instead, please complete Comments on the Exam: Exam Day, Form 8 and send it to info@cambridgeinternational.org so that we can pass your feedback to the Assessment Manager. If you would like us to respond to your concerns as a formal complaint, please get back in touch with us after you have received your results.
The outcome of Enquiries about Results will be open to an appeals process. This appeals process, which is detailed in our Cambridge Handbook, is the only escalation route that your concerns about results can be considered.
If, having received the result of any application for Access Arrangements or Special Consideration, a school wishes to appeal against that outcome then schools may submit an appeal in accordance with the regulations in the Cambridge Handbook. This appeals process is the only escalation route that your appeal can be considered.
If, having received the outcome of a malpractice investigation, a school wishes to appeal against that outcome then schools may submit an appeal in accordance with the regulations in the Cambridge Handbook. This appeals process is the only escalation route that your appeal can be considered.

How do I make a complaint?

If you would like to make a complaint, this must be something that the school supports and wishes to formally raise with us. Please contact us and write the word ‘complaint’ in the subject line. Please ensure you include the following information:

Your centre name and number
Qualification, syllabus and candidate details
A clear description of your concerns
Details of any previous correspondence with Cambridge International.

If you need further assistance with making a formal complaint, please contact our Customer Services Team on +44 1223 553554.

What can I expect after making a complaint?

A member of the Customer Experience Team will acknowledge your complaint within 2 working days. All complaints are investigated by a senior manager and we aim to respond within 10 working days of acknowledgement. Some complaints, due to their complexity, may require a longer investigation period. We will keep you informed where this is the case.

If you are not happy with the way that your complaint has been investigated you can ask for your complaint to be escalated to the relevant Director for a review of the investigation process. A request for escalation to Director-level is the final available step in our complaints procedure and our response to that request is final.

Appeals and other concerns

There may be instances where you want to challenge one of our procedures, however, we will not be able to accept a complaint about that procedure. As an exam board, it is important that we treat every learner fairly and consistently. Therefore, if we have an existing appeal procedure, we will explain this to you and suggest you raise this through the appeal route.

In order to raise an appeal, you will need to demonstrate that we have used procedures which were not consistent with our Code of Practice, or that we have not applied our procedures properly and fairly. You can find more information on our appeals procedures under section 7 of the Cambridge Handbook, including timeframes within which an appeal must be submitted.

What if I don't want to make a formal complaint, but still raise concerns?

We record, analyse and review expressions of dissatisfaction when customers do not want to raise a formal complaint. Please email us with details of your concern.

Unacceptable customer behaviour

It is our aim to ensure that all customers are given a high quality service. We value feedback from schools, parents and learners as it allows us to continually assess the way we work and make improvements where necessary. We respond to all complaints received and it is our aim to resolve concerns raised by our customers as quickly as possible.

The majority of our customers respect our staff, policies and decisions. However, in a minority of cases customers can pursue their complaints in a manner that not only impedes our investigation but is time consuming, unacceptable and vexatious.

Cambridge International considers a complaint or enquiry to be vexatious and unacceptable if it meets one or more of the criteria set out below:

Abusive, offensive or foul language over any of our communications channels.
Intimidating or threatening behaviour.
Sending multiple emails, making multiple telephone calls, leaving multiple voice mails or webchat communication.
Insistence on pursuing complaints that have already been answered.

Where an enquiry is deemed to be vexatious, this could result in our refusal to continue communicating with you. You will be informed of any action we decide to take.

Cambridge Early Years

Cambridge Primary

Cambridge Lower Secondary

Cambridge Upper Secondary

Cambridge Advanced

Other

Cambridge Exams Officers' Guide