Initial thoughts
Culture Shift has been working closely with the higher education sector since 2016, we provide a powerful online platform for reporting, support information, data analysis and sharing as well as training and community-building services.
We’ve supported the majority of the higher education sector in the UK in increasing their reporting rates, better understanding their student and staff member’s experiences of unacceptable behaviours, and supporting them in implementing preventative measures. We’ve worked closely with and been inspired by so many activists and campaigns that have led to these changes and I’d like to thank them for their hours of hard work and relentless commitment to bringing about this change . Your work, I hope, will bring a new era of increased action, transparency and accountability.
Many Higher Education providers in England, especially those we work with, already have a lot of elements of the regulation in place. There will be additional work for every provider but this amounts to a lot more for some than others. Ultimately, I hope that this regulation will ensure that students have a consistent experience wherever they study, that they trust their institutions when they do experience harassment or sexual misconduct and that together we can reduce the prevalence of these issues.
Whilst regulation in this area is something that I really welcome, I do have some reservations. Consistent, effective practice amongst providers must be improved across the sector. It’s not ok that students in one university might have a different experience than that at another because one provider sees this as simply a box to tick. We at Culture Shift will do our utmost to ensure leading practice is amplified and do our bit to help improve consistency between providers. There remains unanswered questions and a lack of direct guidance in some areas. While institutional autonomy has been carefully considered and I know will be welcomed across the sector, we need to ensure that the ability to choose how to implement certain elements doesn’t lead to inaction.
Welcome news
Preventing abuse of power through intimate personal relationships has been something I’ve been extremely passionate about for some time, working closely with the 1752 Group. I’m delighted to see the strong steer towards a ban, while giving institutions the opportunity to find other ways to address this, as long as they make a significant and credible difference in protecting students from any actual or potential conflict of interest and/or abuse of power. We welcome the explicit mention of the risk of the power imbalance in these relationships and the steps providers will have to take to limit this risk.
We’ve often spoken publicly about the importance of data sharing, with the updated guidance from UUK and the expectation in the regulation to ensure ‘that persons directly affected by any decisions made in respect of incidents of harassment and/or sexual misconduct are directly informed about the decisions and the reasons for them’ we hope this will bring around a new era of ensuring that reporting parties and witnesses become better informed about what has resulted after they have taken the difficult step to share their experiences.
We’re delighted to see that the reference to definitions in the sexual offences Act that were mentioned in the consultation have been removed. We use and encourage our partners to engage with a much broader and not overly legalistic definition of sexual misconduct. We welcome the autonomy to use an evidence and experience-based approach to defining this problem.
Where we have some concerns
The requirement to demonstrate capacity and resources is very vague and risks that some HE’s won’t spend enough compared to others. This won’t solve the issues raised by the SUMS consulting review of the statement of expectations that some institutions are failing to act while others invest. We will be interested to understand how the OfS will judge what is a ‘sufficient’ amount of capacity and resource. I worry that failing to be clear and directive in this area such as assigning a KPI like percentage spend of turnover or amount per student will mean that when money is tight, some providers will continue to cut costs and under-fund this important area of work.
Providers with higher prevalence will be expected to spend more. We are yet to understand how this will be judged as there’s no requirement for all providers to undertake a prevalence survey. My concern is that this will disadvantage those who do comprehensive work on this subject. It may also disadvantage certain types of universities, for example those with more undergraduates, campus based or with full-time courses. If it is found that there are institutional issues to be found, then more resources should be invested but as sector-wide data is not yet available to make this assessment I can’t understand how the OfS will judge this.
Harassment definition, free speech ‘trumping’ harassment and sexual misconduct (not sure they would stand up legally for a provider if someone sued them).
Applying objective tests in legal definitions (despite the regulation saying that a criminal level of investigation is not required) will lead to an increased burden of proof being applied incidentally which will make it harder for victim/survivors to demonstrate their experiences.
How Culture Shift can support you in meeting the regulations
With our Report + Support™ platform 1.9 million 2 million students already have a safe and secure online way to disclose their experiences either anonymously or with their contact information. Our latest feature allows case workers to continue conversations with anonymous reporters who would like to have further information.
- Clear support information – while the regulation requires a single source of information that is hosted on the providers website, providers who are using Report + Support already detail much of this information on their platforms. We believe that it will be possible to summarise the information available on the site and link through to it from your single source.
- Data analysis and publication – our analytics tool gives you a dashboard of the types of incidents that are being reported, how long you are taking to respond to them.
- Training – Our training academy can help you meet the regulatory requirements by having all staff responding to disclosures/reports appropriately trained. Spaces are available to book onto our monthly sessions and you can contact us to book sessions exclusive to your institution.
- Campaigns – Culture Shift’s ready made campaigns are worth up to £15,000 each, containing printable and digital assets, templates and guidance. They cover being an active bystander, allyship, encouraging people to speak up when they experience unacceptable behaviour and preventing sexual harassment.
Implementing Culture Shift’s platform, training and campaigns is already making a significant and credible difference across the sector, leading to a reduction in the prevalence of harassment and/or sexual misconduct and can help to protect students from their impact. Many of our existing partners are taking these steps and much more. The work in Higher Education already inspires other sectors we work with to do more. We’re proud to share leading practice from many UK Higher Education institutions and I look forward to continuing to work with so many of you as we continue on this journey.
