Tackling racial harassment in higher education

The recommendations are the result of an advisory group we convened in October 2019 and come just over a year after the Equality and Human Rights Commission uncovered widespread evidence of racial harassment on university campuses.

The advisory group, chaired by Professor David Richardson, Vice-Chancellor, University of East Anglia, was informed by experts in the field and carried out in-depth consultation with panels of exclusively Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic students and staff with lived experience of racial harassment.

What are the recommendations? 

The recommendations include practical steps that all university leaders can implement immediately: 

• Publicly commit priority status to tackling racial harassment.
• Engage directly with students and staff with lived experience of racial harassment.
• Review current policies and procedures and develop new institution-wide strategies for tackling racial harassment.
• Improve awareness and understanding of racism, racial harassment, white privilege and microaggressions among all staff and students, including through anti-racist training.
• Ensure expected behaviours for online behaviour are clearly communicated to students and staff, as well as sanctions for breaches. 
• Develop and introduce reporting systems for incidents of racial harassment.
• Collect data on reports of incidents and share regularly with senior staff and governing bodies. 

Executive summary 

For an overview of the guidance and recommendations, the executive summary provides all the key information. 

Case studies 

Alongside the guidance, examples of case studies have been published to share emerging best practice in the sector. 

Webcast 

In this webcast, the panel discuss the themes of the guidance, share best practice and offer advice to those working in higher education institutions.

Tackling racial harassment webcast from Universities UK - Events on Vimeo.