Student complaints against universities 'soar by a fifth' It called on universities to clarify rules on cheating to remove any "ambiguity" surrounding the issue. The watchdog also warned over continuing uncertainty over the amount of help academics can give students. The issue was drawn into sharp focus last year after it emerged that professors at the London School of Economics assisted Saif al-Islam, the son of former Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, to complete a PhD. "There is still a good deal to be done by a number of universities in setting out right at the beginning of programmes what is expected of students - both undergraduate and postgraduate - in terms of avoiding plagiarism and mastering technical competence in study skills," said the report. Overall, more than 2,000 enquiries and 1,605 complaints were lodged in 2011 with the OIA, which was set up under Labour to arbitrate between students and universities in England and Wales. Complains have increased by 200 per cent since 2005, it was revealed. The increase has coincided with a sharp rise in tuition fees, with students demanding better standards of teaching for rising contributions. The cost of a degree course tripled to £3,000 in 2006 and is set to rise again to a maximum of £9,000 this September. In its annual report, the watchdog admitted that the sharp hike in fees in 2012 was likely to trigger another surge in complaints, with predictions that numbers could rise by another 40 per cent next year. According to figures, the OIA awarded £184,188 in compensation to students last year, with the largest single award standing at £10,000. In one case, a student was awarded a first-class honours degree only to be told after his graduation ceremony that he should have received an upper-second. The university apologised for the blunder, which was blamed on an administrative error, and was ordered to pay £750 compensation. But the report said that rising numbers of cases also surrounded academic misconduct and plagiarism. In one case, a student complained after receiving no marks for an essay in which half had been copied from published sources without full referencing. The OIA rejected the complaint. Rob Behrens, the organisation's chief executive, said: "Although only constituting a small total, the number of complaints categorised in this way has doubled in percentage terms since 2008. In the context of the ready availability of essays for purchase on the internet, this growth is unsurprising. It was also suggested that some academics were giving too much help to students while others were accused of failing to provide appropriate guidance. The OIA added: "These ambiguities include: assistance with the submission of application for postgraduate study; extra tuition in a relevant subject beyond that provided by supervisors; research notes prepared by others on matters of relevance to the student's work; dictating text to an assistant; relying on an assistant to draft text and having a native English speaker correct the drafts of students for whom English is a second language."