Thanks for your pertinent reply, Ronove. It should come as no surprise that I too had not heard of them until it became necessary that I should learn of them, because I had exhausted the internal complaints process of my university. (I also had no experience or knowledge of those processes either until I became embroiled in them.)
So, what actually happens is this:
You find yourself in a position where you have a complaint against a university. You make your complaint, and you are pointed to their complaints forms. They usually have two levels, a Stage 1 complaint, and a Stage 2 complaint. When you have exhausted those, you have completed the university's internal procedures, and they are bound by law to issue you with a "Completion of Procedures" form. At this point, the only (affordable) place to turn to is the OIA. They are funded by the university, they are not impartial, and even if you were one of the very low percentage of cases that succeed, you will not recover your loss. They NEVER put a student back into the position that student was in prior to the cause of the complaint happening. (No matter what you read on their website.). In fact, they destroy lives, by dragging out complaints for sometimes well over a year, and then making a finding that they could, considering what work they have actually covered, make a finding in about two weeks.
If you are still at university, you would do well to familiarise yourself with this system. None of the people who I know, who ultimately had cause to use them could have possibly foreseen the circumstances that they ended up in which caused them to seek help.
As for the earlier suggestions that I am carrying out a vendetta, you should know that the unlawful actions of my own university have cost me dearly financially and otherwise. I am at least £100,000 down in lost earnings as a result of their malevolence, and my career is pretty much ended before it began, in spite of my having had a majorly successful internship with a very well known coca cola sized enterprise...so yes, I AM rather dissatisfied with them!
I don't need to be here. I can sue them for breach of contract and just walk away. However, I just don't want other students to go through what I have had to go through, and what I know that others have also gone through.