Focus on Consumer
Insight Centre
World’s first
masters degree
for professional
complaint handlers
T
HE CONSUMER INSIGHT
CENTRE at QMU has launched
the world’s first postgraduate
degree for professional complaint
handlers. relationship with the Ombudsman
Association and the International
Ombudsman Institute and regularly
delivers courses on dispute resolution for
professionals across the UK and beyond.
The new MSc Dispute Resolution is an
accredited qualification for professionals
in the workplace who deal with disputes
between consumers and businesses and
between citizens and the state. QMU is aiming to raise standards
across the complaint handling industry
by drawing on insights from its research
and consultancy work. This includes the
development of the University’s new MSc
Dispute Resolution.
Complaints about public services and
private industry are big business. The UK
central government alone spends around
£1.5 billion a year on professional dispute
resolution.
The private sector also spends a
significant amount on customer care
and complaint handling activities. The
Financial Ombudsman Service received
a whopping 2,357,374 complaints and
enquiries last year.
QMU’s Consumer Insight Centre has
been collaborating with colleagues from
the ombudsman and complaint handling
world to develop accredited qualifications
for professional complaint handlers.
The University has a long standing
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QMYOU / Sustainable Business
Chris Gill, MSc Dispute Resolution
Course Leader at QMU’s Consumer
Insight Centre, said: “There is clearly
work to be done to improve standards
across the complaint handling industry
and the provision of professional
education is only one piece in an
undoubtedly complex puzzle.
“We feel that it’s now the right
time to speed up effort to develop
professionalism in the complaints sector.
Ultimately, good complaint handling
provides better public services and fair
consumer markets. It’s a crucial activity,
which affects the everyday lives of
consumers and citizens.
“It’s in everyone’s
interest to ensure that
– in years to come – a consumer can
expect the same level of publicly
assured professionalism when dealing
with a complaint handler as they can
when dealing with a lawyer, doctor
or accountant. It is time to make this
aspiration a reality.”
QMU welcomed its first MSc Dispute
Resolution students in January 2015.
The unique course is available as a
Postgraduate Certificate, Postgraduate
Diploma or MSc according to each
student’s preferred outcome. The
Postgraduate Certificate is available
entirely online, while the Postgraduate
Diploma and MSc are available by a mix
of online and campus-based modules.
The MSc Dispute Resolution will
provide students with a qualification
which is relevant to the workplace and
will maximise students’ potential to
develop within their existing or new
careers, including public health services,
housing associations and banking.