Always Learning

 Complaints and feedback 

Information on this page tells you what we can and can’t help with. We take complaints about the quality of our service very seriously, and welcome your feedback about how we can improve whenever we fall short.


Information about how Edexcel can help you!

We want to help you as much as possible but some questions or complaints may need to be raised with your school, college or training provider, who can contact us on your behalf. We think it’s better for you to know this now, so your complaints can be resolved as quickly as possible.

There are two important considerations that may limit the actions we can take to address your complaint:

  • Students and their schools have a relationship with which we cannot interfere
  • Awarding organisations must adhere to policies set by regulators that are in place to ensure all students are treated equally

You can read more about our commitment to students and parents in our Customer Service Charter.

Roles and responsibilities

The role of awarding organisations   The role of your school, college or training provider
Awarding organisations, including Edexcel, offer academic and vocational qualifications to schools, colleges, employers and other places of learning and are responsible for: As a student, you have an arrangement with your school or college to take your qualifications. Your school or college are responsible for:
  • Developing and writing qualifications
  • Providing examination and support material to your school or college
  • Making sure your work is marked or assessed
  • Publishing your results and ensuring your school or college have them on results day
  • Providing a service for schools and colleges to query your results
  • Printing and distributing your qualification certificates
  • Registering you to take a qualification
  • Teaching you the course and supporting your learning
  • Making the arrangements for and facilitating your examination or assessment
  • Providing you with the information you need about your exams
  • Making any enquiries about results, or other Edexcel assessment related issues, on your behalf
  • Claiming your certificate once you have finished the course


What about the regulatory bodies?

All awarding organisations must adhere to regulations set by the regulatory bodies.

The regulatory bodies formally recognise awarding organisations and their qualifications, and monitor their activities to make sure they are adhering to their regulations.

Find out more about our regulators.


The role of Joint Council for Qualifications

There is also a body called the Joint Council for Qualifications (JCQ) who represent a number of awarding organisations. JCQ facilitate meetings between awarding organisations so they can share information, agree common practice, and respond collectively to stakeholders about matters of concern or issues raised in the media.

Find out more about the JCQ.


Complaints about your teacher, school, college or training provider

If you’re unhappy with the way your teacher is delivering an Edexcel course, or with a decision that’s been made by your school, college or training provider, you need to raise your concerns through their internal complaints process.

All schools or colleges who run Edexcel qualifications are required to create an internal complaints process before we approve them to offer our qualifications. We can’t investigate any complaints about your teacher or school unless you’ve taken your complaint through their internal process first.

The only exception is where you have evidence of serious malpractice at your school or college, in which case you should always contact us directly, with the relevant details, at pqsmalpractice@pearson.com.

See an example of a school’s internal complaints escalation process.

Why can’t you come to Edexcel directly?

Your school or college are responsible for:

  • Teaching you the course and supporting your learning
  • Making the arrangements for and facilitating your exam or assessment
  • Providing you with the information you need about your exams
  • Making any enquiries about results, or other Edexcel assessment related issues, on your behalf
  • Claiming your certificate once you have finished the course

If you think your school or college are not fulfilling their responsibilities or you disagree with a decision they’ve made, you need to give them the opportunity to investigate and respond to your concerns. As the awarding organisation, we will only review a complaint when your centre’s internal procedures have been exhausted and you are still unhappy with the outcome.

Results and grading

If you’re unhappy with your results, or think they are wrong or incorrect, we recommend you first speak to your school or college. One of our responsibilities is to ensure that all student results are sent to schools and colleges in time for results day, together with all relevant information about grade boundaries. As such, your school or college is likely to have the information you need to answer questions about your results.

We recommend that you discuss your concerns about results and grades with your school or college, and ask them to explain clearly the options available to you. If necessary, they can contact us on your behalf.

  

Re-marking coursework

We’re often asked whether an individual student’s coursework can be re-marked. It is not possible to re-moderate an individual piece of coursework or to re-moderate work where the teacher's marking was to the national standard.

The rules around marking and re-marking coursework, and controlled assessment, are set by the Joint Council for Qualifications (JCQ) and apply to all major awarding organisations.

Coursework and controlled assessment are internally marked by the teacher and then the work is externally moderated by Edexcel. If coursework is marked incorrectly by a teacher, it is picked up during the moderation process and coursework marks are adjusted accordingly.

If a teacher's marks are adjusted by Edexcel only your school or college can request for coursework to be re-moderated. This is because if a re-moderation is requested, all coursework must be resubmitted and any changes will affect all students registered at your school or college for that particular subject.

Why can’t you come to Edexcel directly?

Your school or college are responsible for making any enquiries about results, such as requests to get copies of your exam scripts or to have a question paper remarked, on your behalf. To deliver Edexcel qualifications, they must have processes in place for you to request enquiries about results. This is a requirement of Ofqual who set out the roles and responsibilities of centres and awarding organisations in their GCSE, GCE, Principal Learning and Project Code of Practice.

We have included some of the key information from the Code of Practice (section 9) below:

  • ‘The awarding organisation must not consider enquiries about results directly from internal candidates or their carers...’
  • ‘The awarding organisation must require centres offering its examinations to ensure that they have in place:
    1. a procedure for candidates or their carers to request access to the enquiry and appeals system
    2. a procedure for lodging enquiries about results in cases where the centre supports an enquiry lodged by a candidate or carer
    3. a formal, codified procedure for handling disputes when a candidate or carer disagrees with a decision by the centre not to support an enquiry.’
  • ‘Centres must be required to ensure that the procedures are published and made widely available and accessible to all candidates and their carers.
  • ‘In deciding whether to support an enquiry or appeal, centres should take account of all relevant factors and afford candidates or their carers a reasonable opportunity to express their views.’

If your school or college is not supporting your enquiry, they should have a formal process you can go through to appeal their decision.

Complaints about replacement certificates

All of the information about applying for a replacement certificate, the type of document you will receive, how much it costs and terms under which we will issue a refund are outlined on in our FAQs and in our terms and conditions.

If you feel that we have not complied with these terms you can submit your complaint to us by emailing complaints@edexcel.com.