Our 2020 report sets out recommendations designed to decisively tackle racial harassment as part of efforts to address racial inequality in UK 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.
Progress review
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Our 2023 update reveals the findings of our review of the impact of this guidance, and sets out how universities can improve further.
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.
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Case studies
Alongside the guidance, examples of case studies have been published to share emerging best practice in the sector.