The RSTP in my university is awful. The places for each session are extremely limited. Dates change without noitce. The facilitators have to come from far away to give the sessions.

Regarding one of the most important group of sessions for my field, officially the postgrad office is unable to find facilitators to this course from within the university and therefore it only runs once a year, there is a large waiting list, and so I am not able to attend.

I have complained to the Postgrad office. They have sympathised and said that I am one of a number of students complaining about the situation in general, but also more specfically regarding the course above.

How high can I / should I go with this?

You should write to the Manager of that department that 'how this is affecting your research' and alternative venue and course must be offered in a collaborating and alternative university. These day many of these unis are working in collaboration so it seems a possibility.

If you are funded by a research council I would also recommend complaining to them. Universities get extra money from research councils for funded students specifically to pay for their research training. If the research training is not up to scratch you should let the research council know.

I did this during my degree, and at the end in my end-of-award report. It may not have changed much, but I felt better about it. There was good training by the end at my university, but it was too late for me, and not there when I needed it.

If it's crucial for your field, are there other people in your department effected too? If so, it might be worth talking with the department person in charge of research students, to see if they can do anything. There might be someone in your dept using that method / technique, who isn't able / willing to teach it for the whole faculty but might for their own students. Otherwise I'd look up what the formal complaints procedure is at your university and start using it. I've noticed that if you complain formally a lot more notice is taken than if you just have an informal moan in an office. If then you have to escalate, you can prove that you've followed procedures but not have a satisfactory reply.

I won an appeal which came from the Vice Chancellor's office after complaining how my research was ignored until nearly 15 month and after that I was dropped to Mphil. Tell you what m8 despite nearly 2 months passed nothing is happening and they are not even replying to my emails. I have complaint again to the VC. I think it might be better for you to remain anonymous and just do the job. Many people here would be happy to teach you how to search papers/journals on the internet. Its easy and thats all they teach in those courses..