On 31st July 2024, the Office for Students decided to create a stricter, more interventionist policy on harassment and sexual misconduct in universities. With the policy set to come into force from 1st August 2025, why the change? And is it enough a year on?
By Emma Coleman, First Year, English
The OfS sexual misconduct guidance proposed last year is set to come into force in the beginning of August.
The Office for Students claim to be ‘strengthening [its] regulation in this area because [they] know it is something that has a big impact on students’, and as sexual misconduct remains a growing issue across institutions.
Their 'Condition E6: Harassment and sexual misconduct' policy is broken into 7 main parts: publishing and communications, taking steps to protect students, NDAs, staff and student relationships, reporting process, training for both staff and students, and support for those affected. A more digestible, student-friendly version of these revised guidelines is available here.
1. Publishing and communications: The OfS emphasises the need for a ‘single comprehensive source of information’, which will be a single document or webpage to lay out all policies and procedures on tackling sexual misconduct. This must be relayed to students and staff at least annually, and contain specific information for students in different cohorts (where policies may differ). OfS has created a ‘minimum content requirement’ for this, and universities that display higher frequencies of harassment occurrences will need to implement further steps.
2. Taking steps to protect students: these will remain unique and self-regulated by each University and should be in-keeping with the frequency of occurrences of sexual misconduct.
3. Non-disclosure agreements: NDAs relating to allegations of harassment and sexual misconduct will hereby by banned from 1st September 2025 (excluding agreements before this date). This prevents restrictions on students from speaking out against their perpetrator and removes the fear a student may be offered one in an attempt to gain justice.
4. Staff and student relationships: universities remain able to choose whether these relationships are banned or discouraged, however, OfS wish to prevent ‘conflicts of interest or abuses of power’ regardless. Due to these relationships, students may have been denied help or received ‘special treatment’ which, either way, is a hinderance to their learning path. This excludes relationships that existed before the date of policy deployment and the University must be informed of any staff-student relationship. Read more about this here.
5. Reporting process: students must have an accessible method of reporting incidences of sexual misconduct to their University. These methods must be permitted to be anonymous, and information must be handled sensitively. Following this, all students involved should be informed of the investigation process and of any decision reached. At the University of Bristol sexual misconduct can be reported here.
6. Training for staff and students: these sessions must be administered by someone with expertise in handling sexual misconduct, and not just a regular member of staff. They could include training for witnesses, sexual consent and explaining the new guidelines in place. It is important for both staff and students to receive this training, as either can be a victim of sexual harassment.
7. Support for those affected: support must be provided to both the victim of harassment or sexual misconduct, as well as the perpetrator. This could include counselling services, referral to outside services (such as SARCs) or academic/assessment-related concessions.
The OfS also emphasises abiding to freedom of speech laws when universities create measures on protecting their students. It also clarifies that this policy does not replace laws, such as the Equality Act (2010) and the Human Rights Act (1998), and institutions are bound by legal duties first.
How these changes will affect sexual violence on campuses remains to be seen.
Do you think the Office for Student’s new policy on tackling sexual misconduct will be effective in providing safety at university?
