Reports made by staff about student conduct
Informal and formal options are included in all policies and procedures associated with protecting dignity at work and study and raising concerns.
Procedure for dealing with reports made by staff about student conduct relating to bullying, harassment, and hate incidents
Before raising a concern, staff may wish to explore options before deciding whether formal or informal action is appropriate.
Informal options
Informal action is encouraged where appropriate, and could involve speaking to the relevant student/s directly in the first instance, with or without support.
When support is required to tackle a concern informally, this may involve college staff, academic staff, professional support staff, or fire safety officers, as appropriate. Other sources of support are outlined on the University’s Report and Support web pages.
Informal action can be taken without making a report (see Making a report), but when a report is made by a staff member about a student, an appropriate adviser would contact the reporting staff member to explore both informal and formal options for resolution. Advisers may be based within the Conduct and Respect team or College staff, as appropriate.
The Informal Action section of the University’s Non-Academic Misconduct Disciplinary Procedure explains how staff can take informal action when there are concerns about student misconduct.
Formal options
Staff may feel that informal resolutions are not appropriate because of the nature or seriousness of the concern, or attempts at reaching an informal resolution may have been unsuccessful and they may wish to raise a concern formally.
Information on taking formal action is available within the University’s Non-Academic Misconduct Disciplinary Procedure. This procedure is governed by the University’s Regulation 7 which is the framework under which the University can investigate and respond to reports of student misconduct.
Support for taking formal action is normally provided by the University’s Conduct and Respect team, but might also be provided by college staff. Other sources of support are outlined on the University’s Report and Support web pages.
Making a report
Report and Support is the appropriate route to raising a concern about student misconduct in all cases (see links below).
When a report is made through Report and Support, initially the reporting staff member will be contacted by an appropriate adviser to explore both informal and formal options for resolution. Advisers may be based within the Conduct and Respect team or College staff, as appropriate.
Unless there are overriding safeguarding concerns, this discussion will not be shared with others, and no action will be initiated without the consent of the reporting staff member. See Report and Support Confidentiality and Duty of Care Guidance for further information.
If the reporting staff member decides to take the matter further, the Non-Academic Misconduct Disciplinary Procedure will be followed.
Anonymous reports can also be made through Report and Support. When anonymous reports are submitted, contact with the reporting person is not possible. If a reporting person selects the option to make an ‘anonymous’ report but then leaves information to identify themselves (ie full name or email address), this may then be treated as a report with contact details. Anonymous reporting will normally be used for monitoring trends, informing campaigns and resources, and proactive preventative work, but an anonymous report will not typically lead to a disciplinary investigation being launched. See section 5 of this policy for further information about anonymous reporting and what the information is used for. In some cases, a report may be initiated by someone other than the affected staff member themselves, for example, when someone has witnessed an incident, or when someone is very concerned about a situation they have been told about.
There are two Report and Support portals at the University one for the University of York (UoY) and one for Hull York Medical School:
The University of York Report and Support portal should be used for:
- University of York staff to raise concerns about any student.
The Hull York Medical School Report and Support portal should be used for:
- HYMS staff to raise concerns about HYMS students.
If the incorrect route were to be used for any report, then the report would be sent on to the correct team.
Procedure flowchart
We've put together this flowchart to illustrate the procedure described above: there's also a Google slide version available.
