It can be very distressing if allegations of bullying and harassment, discrimination, hate incident/crime, and/or sexual misconduct have been made against you. Please, read the information below carefully before you take any further action.
What are bullying and harassment, discrimination, hate incident/crime, and sexual misconduct?
What are bullying and harassment, discrimination, hate incident/crime, and sexual misconduct?
If allegations of misconduct have been made against you, it is essential that you clearly understand what you are being accused of. The following links provide an overview of each form of harassment and how they could manifest:
What support is available if I have been accused of misconduct?
In this situation, the first thing to do is to seek advice and support. Please, consider contacting the following services:
- University Support: You can arrange to speak with your Personal Tutor, or a Counsellor within the Student Wellbeing Services. The University has a Data Protection Policy relating to how it will use your information. There are limited circumstances where the University will be required to share information with the Police, therefore, if you wish to discuss anything in confidence, it is important that you understand the limits of confidentiality and how the information you provide might be used later. Student and Academic Services also has a confidentiality policy which explains confidentiality in more detail.
- Greenwich Students’ Union Advice Team: The GSU Advice Centre is independent from the University and can offer free and confidential advice for students at the University of Greenwich.
- External Support: A variety of external services are available to you. Please, visit this page for more information: Mental Health Support. If allegations of sexual misconduct have been made against you and you would like to discuss this in a confidential and anonymous way, you can do so by contacting Respect Phoneline UK.
- Family and friends: You may want to share information regarding the allegations that have been made against you with family and friends. We encourage you to do so, and to ask for their support. However, please bear in mind that, once information is shared with others, you will lose control over it, so we would also recommend that you only share details of the allegation with your closest network and remind them of the importance of confidentiality. This is to protect any party involved, including yourself.
What is going to happen now?
The University has a duty of care towards all members of our community. This means that if allegations of misconduct are made against one of our members, it is our responsibility to investigate the matter and take appropriate action to ensure that all members of our community can feel safe.
The student who has disclosed the incident to the University is called the reporting student and the student that the allegation has been made against is called the responding student. All allegations made against students about behaviour that breaches our Student Regulations, Policies and Procedures, including our Student Harassment and Sexual Misconduct Policy, are dealt with under the Student Disciplinary Procedure.
If an allegation is made against you, you will be informed in writing of the nature of the allegation; who has made the allegation (other than in exceptional circumstances); and an outline of the next steps.
There will be a formal investigation of the allegation under Stage 0 or Stage 1, which may include meeting with a specially trained Case Investigator. You will be given the opportunity to respond to the allegation and provide information to support your case.
The University will not make assumptions on the relative merits of an allegation. No party will be considered ‘at fault’ until an allegation has been investigated. All those involved in an investigation will be treated fairly and offered advice and support.
In some instances, where the alleged behaviour is considered to be particularly serious, the University may have to take immediate precautionary action – this means that you may be temporarily excluded or suspended. This will be communicated clearly to you including details of what you may or may not be allowed to do in relation to your studies until your case has been investigated and an outcome reached. Precautionary action is not a penalty or sanction and will not form part of the case against you. It is just to keep all parties involved safe, including yourself.
If you are contacted by the University because allegations of misconduct have been made against you, please ensure you seek advice. Do not attempt to contact the reporting student directly, even if you believe that there might have been a misunderstanding.
Am I being accused of a criminal offence?
The University’s Policies and Procedures expect higher standards of behaviour than is usually required by the law and therefore a breach of our policies, procedures and rules will not necessarily constitute a criminal offence. You can find more information about some related criminal offences on the CPS website.
The University will not ordinarily report a matter to the police. Instances where it may do so are detailed in the Student Harassment and Sexual Misconduct Policy. However, if a student believes someone has committed a criminal offence against them, the University will support them if they decide to report it to the police.
If you are reported to the police, then normally the Student Disciplinary Procedure will be paused to allow for a police investigation to take place. Following a police investigation or criminal proceedings, the University will consider the most suitable action to take.
If you are accused of something which could also be a criminal offence, you may want to consider seeking legal advice.
What should I do if someone directly accuses me?
In some cases, a student may choose to discuss the matter with you directly, rather than formally reporting the incident to the University, if they believe that misconduct was not the result of malicious behaviour but, rather, the result of lack of education and understanding on the matter. This might be the student who experienced the harassment first-hand, or someone who witnessed the unacceptable behaviour.
In dealing with the allegation informally, you will need to listen carefully and calmly to what is being said. If you find that you have unintentionally caused offence, or you believe that your words or actions have been misinterpreted or misjudged, then you will need to keep calm to try to reach an understanding with the person accusing you. If you come to realise that you have unintentionally bullied or harassed another student, be ready to immediately change the behaviour causing offence.
You may wish to seek support in understanding how to best prevent that behaviour from happening in the future. Student Wellbeing Services may be able to help you. You may also want to seek advice and support from the GSU Advice Centre or one of the external support agencies listed above.
Whilst we encourage students to engage in constructive criticism and act as active bystanders, there might be instances where the matter cannot be resolved informally, especially if the allegation is around discrimination or sexual misconduct; or if the unacceptable behaviour is thought to have been carried out consciously and maliciously.
In this case, we would encourage all parties to seek support and advice regarding next steps from the University, instead of taking things into their own hands. This might create further tensions and risk escalating the matter.
Should you find yourself at the receiving end of any form of harassment due to an allegation that has been made against you, you are strongly encouraged to report the incident via Report and Support and to seek support and advice from Student Wellbeing Services and the GSU Advice Centre. Whether you are responsible for the alleged misconduct or not, you should never be subjected to harassment because of an allegation made against you.
What happens after an investigation?
If your case cannot be resolved at Stage 0 or Stage 1, it might proceed to a meeting of the University Disciplinary Committee for further consideration (Stage 2). You will be able to respond and provide information to support your position at all stages of your case.
There are a broad range of outcomes and sanctions available at all stages of the process, and you will have the opportunity to appeal any outcome or sanction that you may be given if the allegation is found proven.
For further information regarding this process, please read our Student Harassment and Sexual Misconduct Policy and the Student Disciplinary Procedure.
If you have any feedback or questions regarding this information, please contact: student-conduct@gre.ac.uk.