Ombudsman Peter Tyndall has urged third-level students to bring complaints about their institution to him if they cannot resolve them locally.

Mr Tyndall met representatives of the Institutes of Technology in Galway on Thursday to highlight his role in examining complaints from the public about the third-level education sector.

His office received more than 300 complaints about education services last year, including concerns over poor communication, admission procedures, delays in grants and the appeals or complaints process.

He said that at Thursday’s meeting he had urged all providers of public services to “use complaints as a source of learning”.

He also encouraged students who are unable to resolve complaints locally to bring their complaint to his office.

"We have worked very successfully with bodies in the third-level education sector such as universities and Institutes of Technology, and also with Student Universal Support Ireland [Susi] and the State Examinations Commission, to resolve complaints and to improve the delivery of education services for the public," Mr Tyndall said.

“We have highlighted the benefits of using complaints as a source of learning for providers of public services and we recently developed a model complaints system that we would like all service providers to use.”

Mr Tyndall, who was appointed in December 2013, addressed the registrars of the institutes at Galway-Mayo Institute of Technology.