The number of students making complaints about their universities has risen sharply, a report has shown.
Many are grievances about institutions' appeals processes, their handling of mitigating circumstances and misconduct matters such as plagiarism.
There were 900 complaints registered with the Office of the Independent Adjudicator for Higher Education (OIA) in 2008, up almost a quarter (23 per cent) on 2007 when there were 734, according to the Independent Adjudicator, Rob Behrens' annual report. In 2006, there were 586 complaints.
The higher tuition fee cap of around £3,000 that was introduced in 2006 is partly to blame for the rise, as students seek to ensure they are getting the best for their money, Mr Behrens said.
He said: "We are getting an increase in the numbers of fitness to practice students bringing complaints."
"Student nurses, doctors and teachers who want to qualify have to demonstrate their fitness to practice, it is an extra hurdle to go on that could go wrong. We are getting complaints from those kinds of students."
He added: "Students are increasingly becoming even more zealous in protecting their rights, because they are paying for their education."
Mr Behrens' report shows that 82 per cent, or 734 complaints last year were judged by the OIA as eligible for review, a 22 per cent increase on 2007.
Just 7 per cent of the complaints reviewed - 41 cases in total - were upheld, with a further 103 found partly justified.
The vast majority, 450 complaints (71 per cent) were not upheld, and the rest were either withdrawn or settled.
In his report Mr Behrens said that there was "much good and sensitive work" being done to address student complaints.
But he added: "I have come across a small number of universities insufficiently resourced for effective complaints handling and unacceptable examples of serious delay in addressing formal complaints.
"There are also examples of insensitive handling and of universities failing to abide by their own regulations."
Of the complaints received last year, two thirds (65 per cent), 582 in total, concerned "academic status", meaning they were related to appeals, assessments and grades.
A further 69 were about misconduct, including plagiarism and cheating.
Diana Warwick, chief executive of Universities UK, which represents vice-chancellors, said that there had been a small number of complaints, considering there are 1.9 million students in England and Wales.
But she added: "Universities seek to learn from complaints and will look carefully at the areas where the report recommends room for improvements."
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