Harassment and sexual misconduct policies

Harassment encompasses unwanted conduct that violates a person's dignity or creates an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating, or offensive environment. This includes sexual harassment, and sexual misconduct which is defined as any unwanted or attempted unwanted conduct of a sexual nature.

Harassment is defined by using both the Equality Act 2010 (Section 26)and the Protection from Harassment Act 1997 (Section 7).

Harassment is unwanted physical, verbal or non-verbal conduct which may (intentionally or unintentionally) violate a person’s dignity or create an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating or offensive environment which interferes with an individual’s learning, working or social environment. This also covers situations where someone is treated unfairly due to their past decision to either accept or reject such behaviour. Harassment often involves repetitive actions or behaviours that violate a person's dignity or create a hostile atmosphere.

Harassment may involve sexual harassment or be related to a protected characteristic such as age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sex, and sexual orientation. We believe that any form of harassment is unacceptable even if it does not fall within any of these categories.

Signs of harassment can include, for example:

• Unwanted physical conduct or ‘horseplay’, including touching, pinching, pushing, grabbing, brushing past someone, invading their personal space
• Persistently asking to hang out even after someone has said no
• Sharing images or materials that could be considered offensive or image-based abuse
• Making offensive comments or jokes about a person’s disability, sex, ethnicity or religion, for example
• Deliberately ignoring or excluding someone from a conversation or group
• Up-skirting - taking pictures or videos under someone’s clothes without their knowledge.

Signs of online harassment can include:

• Cyber stalking - repeatedly messaging or spying on someone online to frighten or intimidate them.
• Spreading lies - posting or sending harmful and false things about someone to other people.
• Exposing someone - sharing someone else’s private information without their permission.
• Excluding someone - from group chats or online activities to make them feel left out.
• Image-based sexual abuse - posting someone's intimate photos or videos online without their permission, often known as 'revenge porn’.
• Internet pile-on - when a lot of people are encouraged to target one person and send them mean and overwhelming messages.
• Impersonation - pretending to be someone else online.
• Trolling - sending or posting nasty or controversial messages or comments to make people angry and start fights online.

Some forms of harassment are considered a hate crime or incident. A hate crime is any act of violence or hostility against a person or property that is motivated by hostility or prejudice towards a person due to a particular protected characteristic.

A hate incident is one which is perceived by the victim or others as being motivated by prejudice, even if it doesn't involve a criminal act. Examples include:

• Verbal abuse such as name calling or offensive jokes.
• Bullying or intimidating behaviour.
• Noise nuisance.
• Online abuse.
• Displaying or sharing discriminatory material.

See our Report + Support site for further information on harassment, hate crimes and incidents.

Sexual misconduct is any type of sexual activity or contact that a person does not consent to. It can involve manipulation, pressure, bullying, coercion, intimidation, deception, threats or force.

Sexual misconduct covers a broad range of unwanted or attempted unwanted conduct of a sexual nature and includes, but is not limited to:

1. Sexual harassment: Sexual harassment is any unwanted behaviour of a sexual nature that makes someone feel upset, scared, offended or humiliated.
2. Sexual assault: Sexual assault happens when someone either touches another person in a sexual manner without consent or makes another person touch them in a sexual manner without consent. It includes unwanted kissing and the touching of someone's genitals, breasts or bottom.
3. Rape: The legal definition of rape in England and Wales is when someone intentionally penetrates another person's vagina, anus or mouth with their penis, without that person's consent. This includes if:
   1. two people are in a relationship.
   2. the other person consented to one type of penetration ((e.g. vaginal or oral sex), but not another (e.g. anal sex).
   3. Someone removes a condom without the other person’s permission – or lies about putting one on. This is commonly known as ‘stealthing’.

Other examples of sexual misconduct can include stalking, assault by penetration, indecent exposure (also known as flashing), voyeurism (watching someone doing a private act without their consent) catcalling, groping, drugging, sexual comments, non-consensual sharing of sexts and nudes and sexual exploitation.

See  Report + Support site on our VLE for further information on harassment, hate crimes and incidents.

It’s important that everyone involved in sexual activity is consenting at all times. To consent to taking part in a sexual activity, an individual needs to have freedom, choice and capacity.

Freedom

If someone is being bullied, manipulated, scared or threatened into sexual activity, they do not have the freedom to consent. Threats can be both physical and verbal, for example threatening to break up with someone if they do not want sex. Consent cannot be assumed based on a lack of verbal or physical resistance, and is not present where there is coercion, force, threat, intimidation or where there is the exploitation of a power imbalance.

Choice

Everyone has the right to make their own choices about their sexual experiences, including the right to choose what type of activity they engage in and to change their mind at any time. This is fundamental to responsible and respectful sexual interaction.

Capacity

Someone who is below the age of consent, is asleep or unconscious, or is not aware of what is going on does not have capacity to consent to sexual activity. Alcohol and drugs can impair a person's judgment and decision-making abilities. If someone is so intoxicated that they cannot understand what is happening or cannot communicate their consent, then they cannot legally consent.

In each UK nation, the age at which people can legally consent to sexual activity (also known as the age of consent) is 16 years old. This is the same regardless of the person's gender identity, sexual identity and whether the sexual activity is between people of the same or different gender.

For further information, take a look at the Students’ Union’s Consent Campaign.

Our Report + Support system ensures that students, staff, visitors and placement partners can share any concerns relating to harassment, sexual misconduct, bullying, discrimination and hate incidents or crimes. You can seek to report with your details, enabling us to respond and receive support from an advisor, or you can choose to share information anonymously for the purposes of general information sharing.

If you choose to provide your details, a trained advisor will contact you to provide information on support available within the university and externally, as well as explaining your reporting options to enable you to make informed decisions.

Completing a disclosure on Report + Support does not initiate a formal complaints process. The advisor will discuss reporting options with you, both internal and external, and will support you with whatever you decide. If you would like to make a formal report to the university, the advisor can initiate this process on your behalf using the information you provide.

Students who wish to make a formal report to the university of harassment or sexual misconduct can do so by:

• Contacting the Wellbeing team by emailing the wellbeing inbox and a trained advisor will be able to advise how to make a formal report.

Staff can make a formal report to the university:

• Contacting the Wellbeing team by emailing the wellbeing inbox

Students can make an appointment with a trained advisor, in the following ways:

• Email: wellbeing@london.uclan.ac.uk

The university offers multiple avenues for individuals to share concerns, allowing information to be submitted either anonymously or with identifying details. Anonymous reporting may be chosen for various reasons, including fear of retaliation, lack of trust in the reporting process, or concerns about not being taken seriously.

Recognising the importance of anonymous reporting in fostering trust and addressing concerns proactively, the university provides a Report + Support platform. This platform provides students, staff, visitors, and members of the public with a safe, secure, and accessible way to submit anonymous reports.

Key Principles

To ensure anonymous reports are handled effectively, the university adheres to the following principles:

• The Report + Support platform serves as the primary system for submitting, responding to, and tracking anonymous reports related to both students and staff.
• All anonymous reports are taken seriously and processed consistently and effectively. However, the absence of identifying details may limit the university’s ability to respond in accordance with procedures or offer direct support to individuals involved.
• To maintain confidentiality while ensuring appropriate information-sharing, student-related reports are managed by Student Services and Staff-related reports are overseen by the People Team
• Wherever possible, anonymity is protected to encourage honest reporting. However, in exceptional circumstances, identifiable information within a report may require action. Examples include cases involving safeguarding concerns, ongoing risks, or known issues. In such situations, reports may need to be shared with specific individuals or teams to mitigate risks.
• While anonymity is prioritised, individuals named in a report may sometimes infer the identity of the reporting party. This possibility is communicated clearly at the point of submission.
• If a reporting party chooses to reveal their identity at a later stage, this enables more tailored support and more effective action. In such instances, individuals will be informed of their available options for further reporting and accessing support.
• Depending on the content of the report and subsequent triage, the following steps may be taken in response:
  • Reach out to named individuals to conduct wellbeing checks
  • Share information with professional services/school
  • Share information with external agencies
  • Review relevant policies and practices
  • Provide anonymised insights to the University Cohesion Group
  • Increase security presence at certain times or in specific locations
  • Develop targeted training or communications
  • Monitor the situation
  • Carry out further investigation (within the anonymity limitations)
  • Redact identifiable information from the report
  • No further action, if deemed appropriate
  • Reports containing personal and identifiable information will be redacted upon closure 

Disclosing

This is when an individual chooses to share with anyone who is part of the University, about their own experience of bullying, harassment or sexual misconduct.

This is an informal step and is different from ‘Reporting’ because it is focused on support and not a formal report to be considered under University policies and procedures (unless the University has a safeguarding obligation).

Sharing

Sharing is when a third party, such as a tutor, friend, family member or colleague, shares information with a member of university staff about behaviours they have witnessed, been told about or have seen online, for example, but haven’t directly experienced themselves.

This is an informal step and is different from ‘Reporting’ because it focussed on support and not a formal report to be considered under University policies and procedures (unless the University has a safeguarding obligation).

Reporting

Reporting is when a person chooses to make a formal report about an incident of harassment and/or sexual misconduct to the University for the purpose of the University to consider under the relevant policies and procedures.

Reporting party

The person who has made a report of harassment and sexual misconduct.

Responding party

The person whose conduct is alleged to have breached the University regulations.

Students and staff have the choice to report incidents of harassment or sexual misconduct either to the University, the police, or both. This decision will be fully respected, a specially trained advisor will be available to provide support whatever your decision.

If the police initiate a criminal investigation, any University-led student investigation or disciplinary process related to the allegations will be paused for the duration of the criminal proceedings.

For University staff members subject to a criminal investigation, charge, or conviction, the University will review the facts before deciding whether formal disciplinary action is necessary. In most cases, the University will not wait for the outcome of any prosecution before proceeding, unless a statutory body instructs otherwise.

Any student or staff member under investigation must notify the University as soon as a police investigation begins. They are also responsible for providing regular updates throughout the process and informing the University of the final outcome once the investigation concludes.

Once legal proceedings have concluded, or a decision has been made not to prosecute, the University will reassess the case to determine whether internal investigations or disciplinary actions should resume. This decision is made independently, recognising the differences in the standards of proof required in legal and University disciplinary processes. The University retains the right to close cases upheld through the legal system or to proceed with cases where no conviction was reached.

If misconduct is determined under the Student Disciplinary Policy or Staff Disciplinary Procedure, and a formal court outcome has been issued, the University's disciplinary process will take the court's decision into account when determining an appropriate sanction.

Students must notify the University of any criminal convictions, regardless of the penalty by informing the Dean of School who will make an informed decision of whether the matter needs to be considered under University process. Staff members must report such matters to their designated People Partner.

• Report + Support contains information for anyone who has been reported for harassment or sexual misconduct.
• Trained advisors from the Student Wellbeing Service can help students who have experienced harassment and/or sexual misconduct. They offer a confidential, professional service, ensuring that students receive personal support.
• If you feel your studies have been affected by what has happened, you can consider applying for mitigating circumstances.

Responding students

The university aims to offer a fair, structured, and supportive space throughout the process, providing confidential support for students facing allegations of harassment or sexual misconduct, whether related to the university environment or external circumstances.

This support extends beyond academic guidance to include tailored mental health and wellbeing services, ensuring students have access to the necessary resources as they navigate both formal and informal investigative processes.

Upon receiving an allegation, the university will inform you, ensuring transparency in the investigative process. You will be provided with a clear explanation of the steps involved, alongside details of any risk assessment conducted. If interim precautionary measures are required to protect your wellbeing and the safety of others, these will be communicated to you in a structured and considerate manner.

• In an emergency where any person is at risk of immediate harm call emergency services by dialling 999
• Rape Crisis England and Wales
• National Male Survivor helpline
• Galop - Charity that supports lesbian, gay, bi, trans, and queer people affected by sexual violence.
• UCLan Students' Union Advice and Representation Centre - this is a free, confidential, impartial service where students can get advice and information on academic and personal issues, including advice on procedures and representation at hearings.
• Tell Mama: Report in Anti-Muslim Hate or Islamophobia
• Report Antisemitism – CST – Protecting Our Jewish Community

For details of other support available, visit Report + Support.

• In an emergency where any person is at risk of immediate harm call emergency services by dialling 999
• Talk to your Line Manager or trusted colleague
• Education Support Partnership provide a free and confidential helpline that any colleague can call in the United Kingdom. It is available 24/7 to everyone working in education and available UK wide on 08000 562 561. Trained counsellors listen without judgement. No issue is too big or too small.
• Our staff counselling service is accessible by self-referring via email to wellbeing@london.uclan.ac.uk. This is not an emergency or 24 hour support service. There is a waiting list in operation.
• Telephone the Samaritans
• Contact your GP

The university ensures that investigating officers are fully trained in carrying out fair, impartial investigations free from judgement.

Reports of harassment or sexual misconduct will only be investigated by a member of staff who has been trained specifically on investigations of this nature. There is a bank of trained investigators to draw on to ensure all parties are appropriately supported during and after an investigation.

The following policies explain what harassment and sexual misconduct are and set out the University’s approach to preventing and addressing harassment and sexual misconduct. They provide clear definitions of unacceptable behaviours, procedures for reporting incidents, and the support available to affected individuals.

• Harassment Policy for Students
• Sexual Misconduct Policy for Students
• Domestic Abuse Policy for Students

The Procedure for Reporting and Responding to Incidents of Harassment, Sexual Misconduct and Domestic Abuse provides clear pathways for students to report incidents of harassment, and sexual misconduct, whether they choose to do so anonymously or through formal channels. All are available on the Student contracts – taught courses webpage.

Where the responding person is a  student, the matter will normally be progressed in line with the Student Disciplinary Procedure.

Where the responding person is a member of staff, a member of staff at a placement organisation, a person whose services have been contracted by the university or a visitor to the University, the report will be progressed in line with the Student Complaints Procedure, and in consultation with the University’s People Team.

Where the allegation of misconduct is directly relating to the staff member and their behaviours and actions, the student complaint will be referred to the People Team as a Stage 2 complaint and a disciplinary investigation under the Staff Disciplinary Procedure will be instigated.

Information received or obtained in connection with incidents of harassment and/or sexual misconduct will be handled sensitively and always used fairly.

Any information you disclose, share or report regarding harassment or sexual misconduct will be treated with sensitivity and confidentiality. However, if there is an immediate risk of serious harm or a safeguarding concern, a report may be made to emergency services or safeguarding authorities. Where possible, you will be informed beforehand to ensure transparency and support.

All student and staff records are held securely with restricted permission access. Records will be held for a period of 6 years following withdrawal, completion of a student’s studies or leaving employment. Records may be held for a longer period if reports or investigations relate to someone else within the University.

Information will only be shared where there is a legal basis to do so.

The University of Lancashire is committed to creating a positive culture where our community feel confident to make a report in the knowledge that the University will take appropriate action and inform those affected of the outcome of any investigation.

• The reporting person will be informed of the outcome including whether the alleged behaviour has been proven on the balance of probabilities, the reasons for the decision and any remedies or actions that directly affect them. This will include any measures to support them from an academic, work and wellbeing perspective or to alleviate concerns about their safety on campus. The university will also state where any action will be taken as a result of learning from the report. The University will not normally disclose the details of any sanctions imposed as these are personal to the responding person. However, information about a sanction may be shared where it directly affects the reporting student and their feelings of safety on campus, for example, where conditions have been imposed on the future conduct of the responding person.
• The responding person will receive an outcome including whether the alleged behaviour has been proven on the balance of probabilities, the reasons for the decision and, where relevant, any sanction which has been imposed a result of any disciplinary process. Any sanction will be intended to address the seriousness of the offence, the interests of the reporting student and the wider University community.
• Witnesses: The University is unable to provide an absolute guarantee of anonymity to witnesses offering evidence in a disciplinary case. However, the University will take a reasoned decision about whether to disclose a witness statement, where the witness objects to this. This will involve balancing the witness’s right to privacy against the responding persons right to know what information is held about them and to be able to respond to the allegation. If necessary, the University could decide to take steps to anonymise the document before disclosing it. However, where anonymisation would undermine the fairness of the process (e.g. where it would impede the responding party’s ability to understand the case against them) this will not be possible

In addition to university campaigns delivered to promote awareness of harassment and sexual misconduct, all students are required to complete mandatory training focused on preventing and addressing harassment and sexual misconduct. The training provides students with a comprehensive overview, aiming to equip them with the knowledge and skills to recognise, prevent, and respond to behaviours that constitute harassment and sexual misconduct.

The training has been developed by experts at the University, in consultation with the Students’ Union and the Change Collective. It has been purposefully tailored to the specific needs and experiences of our student population and aims to foster positive attitudes and behaviours, with Support services and reporting options clearly outlined.

The training also contains pre-and post-feedback surveys, allowing us to evaluate the training and implement improvements, as appropriate. We recognise that some participants may have lived experiences related to these topics, and as such, may find certain content challenging to engage with. While participation is strongly encouraged, an alternative option is available for those who may find the content personally difficult.

By completing the training, students will understand key terms in relation to UK law, be able to identify harmful behaviours and their impact, and understand the importance of being an active bystander. It also covers the university’s responsibility and action being taken to promote a respectful, inclusive and safe community and helps students to understand the role they play.

Throughout the year, the university runs campaigns to promote awareness and apply the learning from the training modules in different situations.

In addition to university campaigns delivered to promote awareness of harassment and sexual misconduct, all staff at the university undertake annual mandatory training in preventing and responding to harassment and sexual misconduct.

• Preventing and responding to harassment and sexual misconduct: Developed by the university to ensure it is specific to the university, this mandatory, online staff training package ensures staff understand what harassment and sexual misconduct is and what their role and responsibilities are. The training equips staff with the skills and knowledge to feel comfortable and confident responding to students or staff who may disclose to them and signposting to support.