AN ESSEX-based university received more student protests than any other university in the country, figures show.

For the academic year 2012-13, 992 students made a formal complaint or academic appeal against Anglia Ruskin University, which has a campus in Chelmsford.

The research was part of a national study which revealed more than 20,000 students in 120 universities complained – 10 per cent up on 2010/11.

Among those who complained about the university recently were a group of law students, who have just completed a three-year law degree at the Chelmsford campus.

Several signed up to take a legal practice course to become trainee solicitors.

But after paying their deposit, they were told the course would not run in the city next year and theywould have to travel 45 miles to Cambridge.

The university rejected the students’ complaint.

A spokeman said: “We teach 32,000 students and of the 992 appeals and complaints, fewer than 10 were actually complaints, a matter on which we have satisfied the Office of the Independent Adjudicator on audit.

“The vast majority were academic appeals, where students queried assessment marks or submitted late notification of mitigating circumstances they believed could have affected their performance in an assessment task.”

Universities’ Minister David Willetts welcomed the finding.

He said: “When there’s a fee of £9,000, the university is obliged to show what it is doing and provide a decent service.’’