Policy that protects those reporting discrimination from educational or employment disadvantage
A standing committee has been formed according to the University Rector decision number 73006 dated 28/11/1440 AH for investigating the grievances in the University. Among its tasks is investigating the complaints of all employees including faculty are the following:
Tasks and Responsibilities of the Committee:
Treating the problems which face the employees including the faculty.
Deciding suitable recommendations to solve the causes of the complaints and grievances.
Following up the received complaints and grievances from the different sources.
Validating the causes and grounds of the complaints and grievances with complete fairness and objectivity.
Keeping the secrecy of the information, which ensures goodness of the procedures of investigating the complaint, and the privacy of the complainant and the Committee members.
Documentation of the complaints and grievances.
Forwarding the complaints and grievances of the criminal or penalty nature to the specialized body.
Following up the continuous improvement of the procedures of treating the complaints and grievances.
Steps of Grievance against Decisions of the Scientific Committees
According to the rules and system of work of the Scientific committees in its second round (2016-2019)
Item (31): Procedures of grievance against the result of investigation of the applicants’ documents:
The aggrieved from the non-promotion decision of the Scientific Committee shall submit directly entreaty to the Vice-Rector of the University for Higher Studies and Researches, Head of Complaints and Grievance Committee in the University, explaining the reasons of grievance accompanied by all the documents supporting his entreaty.
The Vice-Rector of the University for Higher Studies and Research forward the serious grievances to the Secretary of the Higher Council of Universities.
The Secretary presents the universities’ grievances which show seriousness to the “High Committee”, which study them with the right of:
Conserving the grievance after making sure that the complaints have no right.
Forwarding the grievance to the “Specialized Committee” to state the scientific opinion.
Address the scientific committees with any comments or reservations.
Ask a member from the “Specialized Committee” to attend the meeting seeking for his opinion.
Taking decisions for the grievances which proved its seriousness and take actions regarding them.
Presenting the matter to the High Council of Universities to form a 5-member committee for investigation and evaluation.
Administrative Grievance Complaints
Some cases may require certain actions before they are brought before the Board of Grievances. One of those actions include administrative grievance complaints. Administrative grievance complaint is a pre- procedure for filing an administrative lawsuit. It means that the complainer reaches out to the administrative body of the defendant, thus expressing his/her requests and objections. This grievance may be compulsory in some lawsuits and optional in other lawsuits.
Work related rights claims: Claims in which employees or pensioners claim statutory rights.
Claims for the abolition of administrative decisions affecting the status of individuals.
In the two types mentioned above, if an individual submits an administrative claim to the Board of Grievances before submitting a grievance complaint to the management, it is not going to be accepted. In other cases (such as administrative contract claims, and administrative liability claims), submitting a grievance complaint to the management is optional, not compulsory. The person may turn to the management for grievance complaint, or he can go to court right away. The benefit for seeking grievance, is the process could be faster and the issue could get resolved quicker. It also saves time and effort for the management and the complainer. In addition to that the management can respond to the complaint in a positive way and the benefits required form the complaint could get achieved. The complaint should be submitted within a specific period and if the complainer missed this period he would not still hold the right to file a complaint. Therefore, the person that has a complaint must pay attention to this period, and the duration varies according to administrative cases. If an appeal is made against an administrative decision, it must be filed within 60 days from the date of him/her being aware of this decision. Missing the period means that the administrative decision holds and is protected. It also results in the failure to accept the administrative case if it is filed in court. Because submitting a grievance complaint is obligatory in cases of cancellation of administrative decisions as mentioned earlier. However, if the grievance is on a subject related to work related rights, the period specified shall be ten years from the date of the right to be asked for by the administration. Complaints related to civil rights are filed with the Ministry of Civil Service.
Definition of Administrative Grievance Complaints
It means that the person who suffers or feels that one of his rights is taken from him reaches out the management. The person will request that the management re-evaluates a decision taken in the manner that he is complaining about. He wants the decision to be corrected by reversing it or cancelling it. Complaints in this way is another option to resolving matters by ending it in in its early stages and fining justice in a fast easy way for employees. The management had realized that if employees could receive their rights within their work force it makes everybody; life easier without the need to go to court. In turn these results of saving money that going to court requires. If any decision was taken and it proved to be wronged the management doesn’t see any harm from correcting the decision in a civil way. In addition to the foregoing, direct complaints to the administration leads to results that sometimes cannot be reached by going to court, the judiciary control is mainly aspects of legitimacy, while the administration can amend the decision or cancel it just because of inadequacy.
Conditions of Administrative Grievance Complaints
In order for the administrative grievance complaint to have legal effect, the following legal conditions must be met:
- The grievance must be focused on a specific decision, and the complaint must be submitted after the issuance of the decision. The complaint cannot be submitted complaining about the initial decisions prior to the main decision.
- The complaint must be submitted by the employee who is affected by the decision himself or whoever is legally authorized to be his representative such as his lawyer.
It is also not allowed to refer to or use other complaints submitted by other people even if the case is related.
- The complaint has to be submitted to the management party who issued the decision or to the higher authority management party that manage the party who issued the decision. The reason behind that is clear because only the party that issued the decision or whoever has higher authority of this management party is the only authorities that can cancel or reverse the decision under complaint. Other parties have no authorities to look into decisions not issued by them. However, this is not an absolute rule, as the Egyptian administrative judiciary acknowledged the legal effects of a complaint, even if it was submitted to a party other than the one who issued it; within the legal deadline for submission.
- The complaint should be aimed at obtaining from the party that we are complaining to an administrative decision that can be challenged by cancellation. Therefore, the decision must be decisive in determining its objective whether to withdraw the decision or cancel it or amend it. If the complaint is intended to obtain an interview with the grievance, or its purpose is to take the opinion of the administration, or simply to protest, the application to the administration does not produce a legal effect.
- The complaint must be submitted within the original date of appeal for cancellation (sixty days from the date of the knowledge of the person concerned) because the passage of this date would lead to the impossibility of prejudice to the decision by the administration and the elimination of both, and therefore any complaint would not work. The lesson in this area is not the date of filing the complaint, but the date of arrival to the party concerned, so it is not enough for the complainant to prove that he has sent his compliant within the date specified by law, but must prove that this complaint sent on time has reached the party concerned, and within the deadline for filing cancellation proceedings.
- The complaint should also beneficiary. In other words, it could possibly end up in benefit for the issuer of the complaint. That the petitioner withdraws, amends or rescinds the decision subject to the grievance. If that is not possible, there is no point of issuing a complaint. A complaint shall not be required in a specific form. It may be submitted by a petition submitted by the concerned person to be deposited in the Bureau of the Administration. Specific formalities for filing a grievance. In general, it does not affect the legal existence of the complaint, the omission of a signature, or the absence of a stamp.
Proof of Administrative Grievance Complaint
The complainant has to prove the submission of the complaint, and therefore does not count as saying by the plaintiff: it is a complaint in the legal time, as long as the date of the grievance is unknown, and cannot guide him or provide evidence, and the plaintiff can prove that he filed the grievance in all the methods of evidence adopted by the administrative judiciary. This is especially the submission of the grievance complaints book.
Board of Grievances
It is an independent judiciary body in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, which is directly linked to the King. It has 16 administrative courts distributed throughout the Kingdom. It seeks to establish justice, fairness and effective judicial control over administrative actions through the cases before him, to ensure the proper application of the established regulations and regulations and to enable the right holder to have the means of appeal. The functions and functions of the Board of Grievances were defined by Royal Decree No. (M / 51) in 1982, and Royal Decree No. (M / 3) in 2014, which provides for the system of proceedings at the Board of Grievances.
The Board of Grievances considers cases to which the Department is a party, but some of these cases may require certain procedures, including administrative complaints, to be submitted to the Board of Grievances complaints. Administrative grievance complaints is a previous procedure for filing an administrative lawsuit, and is intended for the applicant to resort to the administrative body of the defendant to express his requests and objections. This grievance complaint may be compulsory in some lawsuits and optional in other lawsuits.
They are:
Job related Rights Claims: Claims in which employees or pensioners claim rights provided for by law.
Claims for the abolition of administrative decisions affecting the status of individuals.
As an employee\ faculty member \ a student at Qassim University, I hereby pledge to clearly understand, fully comprehend, and willingly accept the Code of Ethics at Qassim University.
And I pledge to commit myself to the highest standards of faithfulness, honesty, in academic and non-academic activities. And I, in no means, will degrade or violate, explicitly or implicitly, this Code of Ethics or any other policy in the university. In light of that I agree on the following:
Supporting and complying with all polices of the university and helping my colleagues to comply too.
Performing tasks and activities with the highest level of good intention, objectivity, transparency, competence, and achieving required care and professionalism.
Committing myself to the highest standards of good conduct.
Refraining from any act that can be seen directly or indirectly as violation of my job’sprofessional ethics.
Dealing with my colleagues in spirit of friendship and excellent behavior Being accountable and responsible of my actions and mistakes, and to participate inpromoting the trust culture in the community.
Doing my best to support and promote the university as a pioneering institute supporting academic excellence.
Adhering to the principles of equality and non-discrimination in addition to honesty,integrity, and respect in all types of duties.
Following the utmost standards of morality and ethics mentioned above even in cases of disputes or complaints.
This means filling the complaint internally is an obligatory condition before taking the his case to court. In this case the complaint issuer has to wait for the responses of the internal management. This type of complaints is limited to appeals by staff members to decisions regarding job matters. Complaints are optional except for the specific situations:
Appointment decisions in public office.
Promotion decisions.
Decisions to terminate the employee’s service or to impose a disciplinary penalty.
Otherwise, appeals against their deficiencies need not be preceded by complaints.
A complaint or academic grievance relating to academic matters includes admission, grades, academic suspension, misinformation, plagiarism, intentionally falsifying information, submission of work prepared for a course in another course, as well as copyright infringement.
Non-academic complaints also include, but are not limited to, harassment (verbal or 30 physical), threats, subversive or abusive behavior on campus, fines, fees, or even exclusion from use of a particular service, discrimination, as well as access to records, policy violation.
Qassim University pursues a fair policy in dealing with its students and their relations with the administrators, faculty, staff or other members of the university community, aiming at establishing and implementing policies and procedures for students’ academic or non-academic grievances. To achieve this, a student rights protection unit was established.
Qassim University pursues a fair policy in dealing with its students and their relations with the administrators, faculty, staff or other members of the university community, aiming at establishing and implementing policies and procedures for students’ academic or non-academic grievances. To achieve this, a student rights protection unit was established.
Standing Committees for Student Rights
The organization regulation of the work of the committee of student rights at Qassim University have been established in its third meeting held in 9/3/1439 H. The regulation include formation of the Standing Committee for Student Rights at the University level, in addition to formation of sub-committees for student rights in the colleges.
The University aims from these committees to:
Realization of a homogeneous university society.
Confirming the principle of justice and fairness as a basic pillar in building an ideal society inside the University, and to support the student rights in comply with the applied systems and regulations.
Presenting the necessary advice to the students, and enlighten them about their rights, and how to get them through the official channels in the University according to the applied rules and regulation.
First: The Standing Committee for Student Rights
The Standing Committee is formed by a decision of the University Rector for two years liable for renewal.
It is formed of:
Faculty member from Shariaa and Islamic Studies College on its head.
Faculty member from Systems Department of the Shariaa and Islamic Studies College as a vice president.
Vice-Dean of the Deanship of Admission and Registration.
Vice-Dean of the Higher Studies Deanship.
Member of the Legal Directorate.
Two members of the faculty of the female sector.
7The committee has the right to seek the help of any person seems suitable for its assigned tasks.
Mechanism of the Committee
The Standing Committee shall be held on a continuous basis to carry out administrative
and technical tasks. It is concerned with:
Discusses complaints and grievances referred to it by the University Rector.
The complaints and grievances that were not resolved by the sub-committees during the legal period.
The consideration and investigation of grievances against the decisions of the subcommittees submitted to it by the students.
Students Complaints which the sub-committees refer them to the Standing Committee because of stepping aside or non-specialty Such complaints or grievances shall enjoy exceptional privacy and confidentiality.
The Standing Committee has the right to issue a recommendation to refer the complainant to a disciplinary committee if his complaint is found to be malicious.
The Standing Committee shall, after completion of the investigation, issue its recommendations on complaints and observations which are of serious concern within 30 days from the date of submission or from the date of referral.
These recommendations shall be submitted to the Rector for approval or appropriate decision. The Rector may submit the decision to the University Council for approval in the cases provided for in this regard.
The decision of the rector or the University Council shall be final and not subject to appeal, and the complainant shall be informed about the decision.
Second: Sub-Committees
Members of Sub-Committees: A sub-committee shall be established at the headquarters of each faculty of the University. It shall be established by a decision issued every academic year by the competent dean or dean of the college. It is composed of one of the faculty members or vice dean as the president and the membership of two faculty members as well as two male or female students of the faculty who are distinguished or knowledgeable.
The work of the Subcommittee is concerned with receiving complaints and grievances from students regarding any academic problems. Even if the complaint is against a faculty member, the complaint or grievance is filed according to the form prepared for this purpose. Settlement of the complaint: The complaint or grievance shall be decided within a maximum period of 30 days from the date of filing the complaint.
The decision of the Sub-Committee shall come into force only from the date of its adoption by the competent authority in accordance with the rules and regulations. The decision shall be announced to the concerned parties and shall be subject to appeal within 15 days from the date of the announcement of the decision. The complaint shall be submitted to the Standing Committee of the University.
