Complain About The BSB At Your Peril, Bar Students – ‘Independent’ Complaints Body Is Chaired By BSB Member

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By Alex Aldridge on

A recent article, ‘EXCLUSIVE: BPTC Students Point Finger At Bar Standards Board Following ‘Disastrous’ And ‘Unfair’ Exams’, elicited over 40 comments from Bar students.

A BPTC student looking to make a complaint against the BSB considers his options.

Many of them were highly critical of the Bar Standards Board (BSB), which is responsible for appointing the members of the central examination board that set the aforementioned ‘disastrous’ and ‘unfair’ exams.

Where can these students go to make a complaint against the BSB?

Well, there’s the Office of the Independent Adjudicator (OIA), the statutory body set up in 2004 under the Higher Education Act to run an independent student complaints scheme.

There’s just one hitch…

The current Independent Adjudicator is Robert Behrens. That’s the same Robert Behrens who sits on the BSB.

Prior to Behrens, the Independent Adjudicator was none other than Baroness Ruth Deech, chair of the BSB.

So tread carefully when making those complaints about the BSB, Bar students.

A big thanks to Legal Cheek poster ‘Vincent’ for flagging up the close ties between the BSB and the OIA.