“Sexual Harassment” is any unwanted behaviour of a sexual nature resulting in distress, intimidation, or humiliation. It can take lots of different forms. It can include:

 

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  • someone making sexually degrading comments or gestures;
  
  

 

• • your body being stared at or leered at;
  
  

 

• • being subjected to sexual jokes or propositions;
  
  

 

• • e-mails or text messages with sexual content;
  
  

 

• • physical behaviour, including unwelcome sexual advances and touching;
    

 

• • someone displaying sexually explicit pictures in your space or a shared space;
  
  

 

• • offers of rewards in return for sexual favours
  
  

  “Sexual Misconduct” covers a broad range of inappropriate and unwanted behaviours of a sexual nature. It covers all forms of sexual violence, including, but not limited to: sex without consent, sexual abuse (including online and image-based abuse), non-consensual sexual touching, sexual harassment (unwanted behaviour of a sexual nature which violates your dignity, makes you feel intimidated, degraded or humiliated or creates a hostile or offensive environment), stalking, abusive or degrading remarks of a sexual nature.

See our Speak Out - Feel Safe - Get Support reporting tool for further information on Sexual Harassment, Sexual Assault and Rape, and Harassment and Stalking. This resource is also available to students on Moodle and Teams.

The School provides a Speak Out - Feel Safe - Get Support portal, which students and staff can use to disclose bullying, discrimination, harassment, hate crime and sexual misconduct. You can disclose anonymously or ask a trained adviser to contact you to discuss reporting options and support available, so you can make an informed decision about what happens next.

The Student Harassment and Sexual Misconduct Policy sets out other options which students and staff have for disclosing concerns if they do not want to use the Speak Out - Feel Safe - Get Support reporting tool, including contacting the relevant faculty, Student Services, or HR for action to be taken under the appropriate School policy. We would, however, encourage students and staff to consider using Speak Out - Feel Safe - Get Support in the first instance so that they can access specialist support from a trained advisor.

Students and staff can disclose how they have been affected by harassment and sexual misconduct using the School’s Speak Out - Feel Safe - Get Support portal. You can choose to do this anonymously or request support from an advisor. If you decide to speak with an advisor, they will be able to discuss the reporting options and support available to you in confidence. We have Sexual Violence Liaison Officers and Mental Health First Aiders who are trained to help students.

A range of support is available within and outside the School for students and staff who have experienced harassment and sexual misconduct. Further information about support options is available on our Speak Out - Feel Safe - Get Support portal:

Students facing allegations: As indicated in the Student Harassment and Sexual Misconduct Policy, students facing allegations will be provided with a named staff member whom they can contact for support. Support is also available from Student Services. The Speak Out - Feel Safe - Get Support portal provides information for students who have been accused of misconduct.

The following policies are relevant to how we investigate allegations of student harassment and sexual misconduct:

The Student Harassment and Sexual Misconduct Policy defines what constitutes harassment and sexual misconduct and outlines the School’s approach to preventing and addressing these issues.
In terms of how incidents are investigated, the Student Harassment and Sexual Misconduct Policy specifies that:
The FE Student Disciplinary or HE Student Disciplinary Procedure will be used to investigate allegations of harassment and sexual misconduct against students.

The Staff Disciplinary Policy and Procedure, and/or the HE Student Complaints Procedure or the FE Student Complaints Procedure, will be used to investigate allegations of harassment and sexual misconduct made by students against staff.

The FE Student Disciplinary Procedure, HE Student Disciplinary Procedure, and the staff Disciplinary Policy and Procedure set out how allegations will be investigated fairly, including timescales, stages, penalties, and appeal provisions.

We are committed to ensuring that students understand what harassment and sexual misconduct are, how to report them, the support available to them, what consent is and how to intervene effectively.

Student will undertake mandatory training, which will include a combination of online and face-to-face sessions.

All staff will undertake online training, with specific staff in key roles, such as those responsible for supporting students and conducting investigations, receiving additional specialist training.

We are committed to protecting students from any actual or potential conflict of interest and/or abuse of power that may arise from intimate personal relationships between staff and students. Our Close Personal or Sexual Relationships Between Staff and Students and Staff and Staff Policy states that:

Sexual relationships with students who are age 18 or over, where the staff member has direct responsibility for or involvement in that student’s academic studies and/or personal welfare, are prohibited. The normal professional relationship between staff and students is not equal. All students are entitled to equality of treatment, and it is essential that this is maintained and is seen to be maintained.

Staff must declare any intimate or close personal relationship with a student, for whom they do not have direct supervision (whether new or existing), to enable the School to assess whether a potential or actual conflict of interest exists.

Taking Steps to Protect Students

We are committed to taking steps that will make a significant and credible difference in protecting students from harassment and sexual misconduct. These include:

Analysing and publishing data on the use of our Speak Out - Feel Safe - Get Support reporting portal.

Building feedback surveys into our online training for students and staff, evaluating the results, and making changes to the training where appropriate.

Consulting with the School’s Students’ Union on changes to our student policies on harassment and sexual misconduct through the Planning and Partnership meetings.

Ensuring students are aware of the issues and where they can seek support, if needed, through regular awareness raising campaigns and events, in person and on social media and involving outside specialist agencies where appropriate.

Providing up-to-date information and resources for students to refer to on an ongoing basis.  

The School will not use non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) concerning complaints of sexual harassment, abuse, misconduct, or other forms of harassment and bullying.