Harassment and gender-based violence framework

Harassment is defined as being subject to unwanted behaviour or conduct which has the purpose or effect of violating a person’s dignity or creating an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating, or offensive environment because of, or connected to, one or more of the following protected characteristics:

• Age
• Disability
• Gender reassignment
• Race
• Religion or belief
• Sex
• Sexual Orientation. 

Harassment can incorporate domestic violence and abuse, which can encompass control, coercion, threats, and stalking. It also includes incidents of physical violence towards another based on a protected characteristic, and hate crimes, such as those criminal offences which are perceived by the victim or any other person, to be motivated by hostility or prejudice. 

Information here explains further what harassment is, what stalking is, and police reporting options.

Information here clarifies whether the harassment is discrimination or hate crime, and outlines specific options for each.

Sexual misconduct encompasses any sexual behaviour that is unwanted and takes place without consent of the individuals involved, including sexual violence, sexual harassment, sexual assault, and gender-based violence. Sexual misconduct can also occur remotely e.g. through social media, e-mail,  texts and phone calls.   

Sexual misconduct can be perpetrated by anyone, and anyone can be a victim of sexual misconduct. Sexual misconduct causes significant psychological and physical distress. 

Sexual misconduct and gender-based violence can include: 

• Rape and sexual violence  
• Physical and/or psychological sexual violence 
• Inappropriate touching  
• Stalking and unwelcome sexual requests  
• Abusive and coercive intimate relationships 
• Sharing of non-consensual visual or audio material (e.g., up-skirting, unwanted sharing of explicit content, image-based sexual violence, audio recordings). 
• Use of IT, Cyber, and Artificial Intelligence technologies to aid acts of sexual misconduct, sexual harassment, sexual violence, and gender-based violence. 
• Catcalling, wolf-whistling, leering, unwanted and degrading comments about a person’s body, clothing, or sex life  
• Commercial sexual exploitation  
• Honour based violence.  

Sometimes referred to as relationship abuse or intimate partner violence, the term ‘domestic abuse’ refers to:  

An incident or pattern of incidents of controlling, coercive, threatening, degrading and violent behaviour, violence or abuse, between those aged 16 or over, who are or have been intimate partners or family members, regardless of gender or sexuality.  

Domestic abuse can include, but is not limited to, the following: 

• Coercive control - a pattern of intimidation, degradation, isolation and control with the use or threat of harm
• Emotional Abuse - making you feel bad about yourself, playing mind games and gaslighting you, threatening to harm or kill themselves.   
• Intimidation  - making you feel afraid through threats, violence, damaging property, or stalking.   
• Minimising, denying, and blaming - making light of abusive behaviours, saying they didn’t happen or don’t matter, or saying that it’s your fault that their behaviour is abusive.     
• Economic Abuse  - controlling your spending, preventing or requiring you to have a job, interfering with your work or education, taking money from you. 
• Digital Abuse - requiring access to your personal accounts, posting about you online in a harmful/derogatory way, sending messages pretending to be you, using spyware or tracking your devices.  
• Physical abuse - physical assault or harm of any kind, such as hitting, punching, slapping, burning, scratching, hair pulling, kicking.  
• Sexual abuse - any sexual contact that happens without your consent. Being in a relationship does not automatically grant consent. Consent requires freedom and capacity - for you to have freedom and capacity to consent to sexual activity, you need to be fully awake, aware of what is happening and not under any kind of pressure.  

Gender-based violence refers to any type of harm that is perpetrated against a person or group of people because of their factual or perceived sex, gender, sexual orientation and/or gender identity.

This type of violence is rooted in the social and cultural structures, norms and values that govern society, and is often perpetuated by a culture of denial and silence.

Gender-based violence can affect people of any gender and disproportionately affects women.  You can read more about gender-based violence on this page.  

GBV can happen to anyone. As outlined above, Gender-Based Violence disproportionately affects women, girls and other marginalised groups 
Sexual violence and/or domestic abuse may be experienced at the intersection of gender and other marginalised aspects of identity such as race, disability, sexuality.  

Men and non-binary people can also be survivors of sexual violence and/or domestic abuse; disclosures from male and non-binary student survivors will be believed and fully supported every bit as much as those by female student survivors, as will disclosures where the perpetrator is not male.  

We are here to support everyone regardless of identity or gender. We recognise that marginalised groups are at higher risk. We also recognise that marginalised groups and male survivors may face additional barriers to seeking support.  

You can initiate the reporting process in a number of different ways: 

• if you’re already being supported by a Sexual Violence and Domestic Abuse Caseworker (SVDA Caseworker)/Wellbeing Adviser, you can request that the SVDA Caseworker/Wellbeing Adviser makes a referral to the Student Disciplinary Team
• use the Report and Support online platform to make the report, which will be picked up by a relevant adviser in Student Wellbeing Services. You’ll then be contacted by a SVDA Caseworker/Wellbeing Adviser who can refer you to the Student Disciplinary Team
• contact the Student Disciplinary team directly by emailing complaintsofficer@bathspa.ac.uk 

You don’t need to include details of the incident in the email to the Student Disciplinary or Report and Support submission. You can say that you’d like to formally report harassment, sexual misconduct and/or domestic abuse. 

The Student Casework Investigator (part of the Student Disciplinary Team, who has been trained in investigating incidents of harassment, sexual misconduct and domestic abuse) will invite you to meet with them. The meeting will be conducted sensitively, using a trauma-informed approach.  
 
You can be accompanied for support by a member of the University community, including a Students’ Union representative, a student, family member, or friend. If you’re being supported by an Independent Sexual Violence Adviser (ISVA) from an external specialist agency such as Safe Link, you can request that your ISVA support you throughout the reporting process. A SVDA Caseworker can connect you to this support.  
 
During the meeting, the investigation procedure will be explained (if not covered already in an informal meeting, as detailed here) 
 
The Investigator will ask you to confirm the report details – this will include giving the Responding Party’s name (if you have it, or any identifying details you have if not).  
 
The Investigator will explore the following with you:

• any concerns you have about reporting and will discuss potential precautionary measures which may help keep all parties involved safe
• if you have any evidence - e.g. photographs, videos, screenshots, voice notes, and will ask you to provide this if so. It’s ok if you don’t have evidence, you can still report
• if there are any witnesses to the incident(s)
• what you would consider to be a positive outcome of the process; your wishes will be taken into account, though it can’t be guaranteed that the outcome will match your wishes. The Investigator will advise what can reasonably be achieved within the scope of the Student Disciplinary Procedure  
• that you’re aware of all the support options that are available to you
• the anticipated investigation timescale, and how and when you will be updated on progress. 

What is a 'witness' in this scenario?

Witnesses include people who witnessed the events before and after the incident(s), not just the incident itself, e.g. people who saw events that led to the incident(s) or saw you afterwards and heard from you about what happened. It’s ok if you don’t have witnesses, you can still report.  
 
If there are witnesses, the Investigator will talk to you about whether you wish to identify who they are, for them to be contacted to contribute a statement for the investigation.  
 
The Investigator will explain what this will involve for them. You may want to discuss this with witnesses first and see whether they’re happy to be involved.

During the Investigation meeting the Student Casework Investigator will also ask whether or not you’ve reported or wish to report to the police – this isn’t because there is any expectation or obligation to report to the police, but so that we can ensure that the University doesn’t interfere with a police investigation, if one is due to take place.  
 
Your wishes with regard to police reporting will be respected and the University will not normally go against your wishes by reporting directly to the police ourselves. Rare exceptions to this are detailed in the section on Confidentiality.  
 
You can report to the University regardless of whether you report to the police.  
 
If you do report to the police, the University will open and adjourn the University process until the police investigation has concluded.  
 
The University will carry out the formal reporting process at this point (provided you still want this to happen), regardless of the outcome of the police investigation/court case.   

The Investigator will write up your statement based on what was said in the Investigation meeting 
 
The Investigator will send you a copy of the statement and will ask you to confirm that it is factually accurate 
 
You’ll have the opportunity to make any adjustments to the statement, as needed.

If the allegation of sexual misconduct involves a member of BSU staff, you can disclose to the Student Disciplinary Team or directly to HR.

Whichever reporting route you choose, you'll be invited to a meeting with a member of the HR team at the University to discuss the reporting options available to you in relation to the staff staff Sexual Violence and Misconduct procedure.

Student Wellbeing Services will support you throughout this process in conjunction with any HR investigation process.

After you meet with the Investigator and confirm your statement, the Student Feedback and Complaints Manager will carry out a risk assessment with relevant senior staff members (for example, the Head of Student Wellbeing Services, the Safeguarding Lead) to determine whether any precautionary measures need to be put in place. 

Precautionary measures

Precautionary measures may be put in place to ensure that potential risks posed to the you (and/or others) by the Responding Party are mitigated as far as possible during the investigation process and beyond. Precautionary measures are context-specific; we can’t guarantee what would be put in place as it will depend on the circumstances but it could include things such as: 

• That the Responding Party has no contact with you, either directly or indirectly, including via social media, and they will be asked to sign a “no-contact contract”; 
• That the Responding Party can only access buildings or facilities at specified times; 
• That either you and/or Responding Party be relocated to alternative accommodation, where possible; 
• That the Responding Party is temporarily excluded from engaging in a University activity e.g. acting as a student ambassador;  
• That the Responding Party is temporarily excluded from a club or society;  
• That the Responding Party be suspended from attending BSU campuses, and can only participate with academic activities online or via recordings etc.  
• That the Responding Party be suspended from BSU campuses, which prohibits them from entering any BSU premises -including accommodation- or engaging with any BSU social or academic activities. 

The Investigator will meet with any witnesses and ask them to provide a statement. Any witness statements will be later provided to both you and the Responding Party. If a witness requests that their statement be anonymised, this will be done if possible, i.e. where the witness is not identifiable by the information they have provided. 
 
The Responding Party will receive written notification of a report having been made, with an explanation of the process which is being followed. They will receive a copy of your Statement alongside any additional supporting evidence you submitted, and any Witness Statements.  
 
The Responding Party will be required to attend a meeting with the Investigator, usually within a maximum of two weeks of the information being shared with them, and they will be given a fair opportunity to respond and present their version of events in response to the Report.  
 
The Responding Party can choose whether to submit an initial written response to the documentation provided; this must be provided at least two working days before their meeting with the Investigator. The Investigator will produce a document summarising the meeting with the Responding Party.  
 
Where there are differences between your account and that of the Responding Party, the Investigator will make you aware of those differences. You’ll be given an opportunity to comment on the perpertrator's reply. If the Responding Party has provided any additional evidence, you’ll also be made aware of this. This gives you a right to reply before the Investigator proceeds further with the case. 
 
All students involved in the process can be accompanied for support by a member of the University community, including a Students’ Union representative, a student, family member, or friend. The companion is there to provide moral support and may not be a legal representative. 
 
All individuals involved in this process should respect the sensitive nature of the process and not discuss or share details of the case outside of the investigation or disciplinary meetings. This is because sharing information could make an already difficult situation worse for everyone involved, and in some cases may undermine the disciplinary process. This does not mean that those involved cannot seek appropriate advice and support. 

On the balance of probabilities (which means that, on the evidence, the occurrence of the event was more likely than not), the Investigator will determine whether the evidence available indicates a breach of the Student Disciplinary Policy.  
 
The next steps may be one of the following: 

• The evidence doesn't support a breach of the policy, therefore no further action is required. The case will be dismissed and no disciplinary action will be taken, but continued support will be offered to both parties.  We know this outcome would be distressing and disappointing; we would ensure there are no negative consequences to you in terms of reputation, how you’re treated, Responding Party being allowed to retaliate, etc.  
   
• The evidence does indicate a breach of the policy and disciplinary action is required. In such a case, a Student Disciplinary Panel Hearing (as detailed in section 7 of the Student Disciplinary Procedure) will be convened to consider the case.  

Following the Hearing, the Panel will deliberate in private to determine whether they believe that misconduct has occurred or not, on the balance of probabilities.  
 
If a Responding Party is found guilty of misconduct, one or more penalties may be imposed by the Disciplinary Panel members, as detailed in section 7.26 of the Student Disciplinary Procedure. 
 
If both you and the Responding Party have attended the Panel Hearing, a copy of the Panel Chair Report will be provided (separately) to you both. This will include a summary of the Hearing, the Panel’s decision, the penalties applied (if misconduct has occurred) and the factors considered in reaching a decision. If the Reporting Party has not attended the Hearing, they will not receive a copy of the Panel Chair Report. 
 
You and the Responding Party will also receive a letter via email, outlining the outcome of the case, any penalties which may have been applied, and ongoing support options for both parties involved. 

Following the conclusion of the investigation, you and/or the Responding Party may appeal against the outcome, following the process detailed in section 9 of the Student Disciplinary Procedure.