Harassment, bullying and hate incidents

We use the Equality Act 2010 definition of harassment which states that harassment is unwanted behaviour related to a protected characteristic, which has the purpose or effect of violating someone's dignity or which creates an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating or offensive environment.

Harassment may be a single event, sporadic events or a continuing pattern and can include behaviour via any means including verbal, non-verbal, physical, written or by means of electronic communication including social media. Examples of other behaviours that could be considered harassment include: 

• refusing to address the person using their name or pronoun, or intentionally misgendering someone
• gossiping about a trans person
• ignoring an individual
• passing judgement about how convincing a trans person is in their affirmed gender
• purposefully disclosing confidential information

Harassment (or bullying) may not be deliberate or intentional. In some cases the person being accused of the harassment may be unaware that their behaviour is having a detrimental impact on another person, has caused offence or has been interpreted in a particular way. For more information see the University’s Dignity at Work and Study.

Procedures for staff and students to report harassment, bullying and hate incidents are outlined in the University’s Dignity at Work and Study Policy.  This policy applies to all staff and students, as well as visitors, lay members of University committees and others not directly employed by the University (including visiting academics, external contractors and their employees, and wholly owned or majority owned subsidiary companies). Read the Dignity at Work and Study Policy.

The policy gives definitions and examples of hate incidents, which include Transphobia:

An umbrella term defining discrimination, prejudice or malicious acts towards trans people and gender identities.  Examples of hate incidents are verbal abuse, intimidation, abusive phone calls, online abuse, graffiti or threats of violence

The policy also provides sources of support for students who have experienced harassment, bullying and hate incidents.  

Further sources of support, including local and national support around LGBTQ+ and non binary issues, as well as a range of university support services, can be found on our sources of support page.