Reports made by students about student conduct

Procedure for dealing with reports made by students about student conduct relating to bullying, harassment, and hate incidents

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 student about another student, an appropriate member of staff will contact the reporting student to explore both informal and formal options for resolution, as appropriate. This contact may be from the Conduct and Respect team or College staff, as appropriate.

Taking personal action

If an individual student feels that they have been, or are being subjected to harassment, bullying or a hate incident by another student(s), they may feel able to take action on their own to make the reported student aware of the effect of the behaviour on them and how they may be able to amend it; this is encouraged where it is appropriate and safe to do so.

In some cases, the reported student may be unaware that their behaviour is having a detrimental impact on another individual or individuals. This is worth considering as it may be a fairly straightforward matter to point out to them what it is that has caused
offence or has been interpreted in a particular way and that may be sufficient to prevent a recurrence.

In many situations, taking personal action can be the most effective and relatively simple way to raise concerns and resolve issues. However, an individual should not feel obliged to raise concerns in this way and should be made aware of the other available options.

An individual may feel able to have a conversation with, or write to, the other person and explain, as clearly as possible, what it is that they consider to be unacceptable about the behaviour and suggest to them how they may be able to amend it.

Involving an appropriate member of staff

If the individual has not been able to resolve the issue through a personal approach - or does not wish to follow this route - but still wishes to seek informal resolution, they should approach the following to support them in achieving a resolution:

• Their college manager -if the incident or behaviour has occurred within their accommodation, college or social environment.
• An appropriate academic supervisor or departmental contact - if the incident or behaviour has occurred during a lecture, seminar or associated academic environment, which has/is having an impact on academic activities.

The reporting student should provide details to their college manager or academic supervisor/departmental contact regarding the incident(s) of alleged harassment, bullying or hate incident.

In all cases of receiving an informal report, the college manager or academic supervisor/departmental contact may seek advice and support from Student Life and Wellbeing team or the Equality and Diversity Office, and will work with the reporting student to seek to facilitate an informal resolution to the matter.

The college manager or academic supervisor/departmental contact will consult with the reporting student to decide how to progress it and this will be done in a sensitive and appropriate manner. Bear in mind that the reported student may not be aware of the impact their behaviour is having.

The college manager or departmental staff member or college manager will take account of the wider implications of any report. For example, they will consider whether the report may be part of a more systemic pattern of behaviour, one which has been reported previously.

The college manager/departmental contact may decide on a number of actions depending on the nature of the report which may include:

• Brief fact-finding in order to establish the nature of the situation
• Making recommendations as to how the student making the report may resolve
  the issue themselves (if they have not considered taking personal action in the first
  instance)
• Facilitating a conversation between parties to encourage respectful, open and
  constructive communication
• Negotiating agreed standards of behaviour between the parties involved,
• Communications to all parties group in order to reinforce appropriate policies,
  procedures or broad expectations the University has around conduct and
  institutional values
• Negotiating a way forward between the parties, for example, facilitating - where
  appropriate - an apology and/or a commitment not to repeat the behaviour
• Referring the matter to the formal procedures under the Non-Academic Misconduct Disciplinary Procedure in cases where the informal procedures have not provided a satisfactory outcome, or where the matter requires a more formal approach

Formal options

Informal resolutions may not be appropriate because of the nature or seriousness of the concern, or attempts at reaching an informal resolution may have been unsuccessful and a student may wish to raise a concern formally. 

Information on taking formal action is available within the University’s Non-Academic Misconduct Disciplinary Procedure.

Support for taking formal action might be provided by college 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.

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 person will be contacted by an appropriate member of staff to explore both informal and formal options for resolution. This contact may be made from the Conduct and Respect team or College staff, as appropriate.

Unless there are overriding safeguarding concerns or other duties, this discussion will not be shared with others, and no action will be initiated without the consent of the reporting student. See Report and Support Confidentiality and Duty of Care Guidance for further information.

If a formal investigation is deemed appropriate, 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 student 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 by:

• University of York students to raise concerns about the conduct of any student.

The Hull York Medical School Report and Support portal should be used by:

• HYMS students to raise concerns about any student in the University (whether the reported student is based in HYMS or elsewhere in the University of York).

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 a flowchart to illustrate the procedure described above.