Sexual assault, bullying, victimisation, harassment and hate crime are issues of concern to universities across the world. In the UK, there has been increasing attention to these issues and how they affect universities in recent years. The UK government recognised the seriousness of this concern and commissioned a Universities UK task force in 2015 to examine the issues of violence against women, harassment and hate crime affecting university students, with a focus on sexual violence and sexual harassment. More recently Office for Students released a statement of expectations which provides recommendations to all higher education providers to develop and implement effective systems, policies and processes to prevent and respond to incidents of harassment and sexual misconduct. More information is available from the Office for Students Website.
As part of the Safe and Welcoming Campus Environments Project, which was initiated in response to the UUK task force report in October 2016, the University undertook a comprehensive review of its policies and procedures for dealing with student disclosures of sexual assault, harassment and hate crime. Sexual misconduct is clearly defined as a breach of the University's Policy on Student Conduct, and the University has the power to investigate allegations of this nature.
The University of Liverpool takes all of these issues very seriously and has a number of proactive interventions in place to tackle sexual misconduct, bullying, harassment, victimisation and hate crime affecting our students.
Report and Support
Report and Support is an online reporting platform for both students and staff to report instances of bullying, harassment, sexual misconduct, hate crime, victimisation, assault or discrimination. Students who make a report will receive advice and support from a Wellbeing Advisor in Student Services Students can also choose to use the tool to report an incident anonymously.
The Report and Support webpages also include a series of support articles and advice for students who are experiencing sexual misconduct, bullying, harassment, victimisation and hate crime or who are supporting someone else who has.
For the Report and Support webpage please click here
When to Refer
Student Services have produced a guide to help all staff to offer the best possible support to students. The guide is called 'When to Refer'. It outlines common scenarios that students often raise with staff, suggesting appropriate responses for staff and the most appropriate services to refer students to.
Guild of Students
The University wants to create genuine culture change, which requires more than merely a top-down approach. Building on previous work the University continues to work closely with the Guild of Students to develop workshops for students on bystander intervention and creating a positive culture in their society or group. For more information on By Stander Intervention please click here. The University also fully supports the Guild, Call It Out Campaign
AMOSSHE Report
The University was also involved in a research project funded by AMOSSHE, which examined students' expectations of their university when they disclose an incident of sexual misconduct. This project involved four other North West universities You can read the summary and full AMOSSHE report here.