Universities and colleges with gripes against the Higher Education Funding Council for England now have a new way to settle them. HEFCE has established a procedure that sets out how institutions can complain about the funding council. It will deal with complaints about irregularity, misconduct, poor performance, ineffectiveness, undue delay or failure to act. However it does not cover complaints about the merits of a particular decision. Initially complaints should be directed to the member of staff concerned. As a last resort, an institution can take its case to the parliamentary ombudsman.