Mandatory mediation for harassment complaints

Short answer

No, a university in England should not be able to force you to use mediation or informal resolution for a complaint of harassment or sexual misconduct, and pressuring you to do so is likely to breach both the university’s own procedures and the regulatory framework that now governs these complaints. Mediation and informal resolution should be genuinely optional and available only with your free and informed consent.

The regulatory position

Since 1 August 2025 all registered higher education providers in England are bound by the Office for Students’ condition of registration E6 on harassment and sexual misconduct. This condition requires providers to have and follow a single, comprehensive and accessible set of policies and procedures for dealing with incidents of harassment and sexual misconduct, whether staff-on-student or student-on-student.

A central theme of E6 and the OfS’s supporting guidance is that a student who reports harassment or sexual misconduct should not be pressured into a particular route. The OfS has been clear that informal or “alternative” resolution processes, including mediation, must not be imposed on a complainant, and must not be used as a way of steering serious allegations away from proper investigation. The concern the OfS specifically identified is that mediation can be inappropriate and even harmful where there is a power imbalance or where the allegation is of serious sexual misconduct, because it can place the complainant face to face with the alleged perpetrator on an equal footing. For that reason mediation should be a genuine choice, not a precondition to your complaint being taken seriously or investigated.

E6 also restricts the use of non-disclosure agreements and other “restricting provisions” that would stop you speaking about an allegation of harassment or sexual misconduct. That is a related protection: a university cannot bury a complaint through a confidential informal settlement that silences you.

What “force” can and cannot mean in practice

There is an important distinction between a university offering informal resolution and requiring it.

A university is entitled to have a staged procedure that describes informal resolution or mediation as an option, and it may explain that option to you. That is normal and lawful.

What it should not do is any of the following: refuse to investigate a formal complaint unless you first attempt mediation; treat your decision to decline mediation as a reason to close or downgrade the complaint; present informal resolution as the only available route; or use pressure, delay, or discouragement to push you away from a formal investigation. If the university is doing any of these things, it is likely acting inconsistently with its own policy and with condition E6.

You are entitled to ask the university to point to the exact wording in its published harassment and sexual misconduct policy that it says obliges you to mediate. In most compliant policies you will find that mediation is expressly described as voluntary and as unsuitable for the most serious allegations.

Facts that affect the answer

The strength of your position depends on some details worth pinning down.

First, the nature of the allegation matters. For sexual misconduct, sexual assault or rape, mediation is generally regarded as inappropriate, and any attempt to require it is on very weak ground. For lower-level harassment between students, universities more legitimately offer informal resolution first, but even then it should not be compulsory if you object.

Second, who the respondent is matters. If the alleged perpetrator is a member of staff, the university also has employment and safeguarding responsibilities, and a power imbalance makes mandatory mediation especially problematic.

Third, the exact wording of your university’s current policy matters, because that is the document the university is contractually and regulatorily bound to follow. It is worth reading the specific complaints and disciplinary sections carefully.

Fourth, whether there is any parallel criminal process matters. If you have reported to or may report to the police, the university should not be pushing you into an informal resolution that could interfere with that.

Practical next steps

1. Get the current policy. Obtain the university’s single source of policy and procedure on harassment and sexual misconduct, and identify the wording on informal resolution and mediation. Check whether it says these routes are voluntary.

2. Put your position in writing. Tell the university clearly and in writing that you do not consent to mediation or informal resolution and that you wish your complaint to be dealt with through the formal investigation and, if appropriate, disciplinary process. Ask them to confirm in writing the route your complaint will now follow.

3. Ask for the basis of any refusal. If they say you must mediate first, ask them in writing to identify the specific policy provision relied on, and to explain how that is consistent with their obligations under OfS condition E6. Simply asking this often changes the response.

4. Use the internal complaints route. If the university continues to insist, make a formal internal complaint about the handling of your case (a “complaint about the complaint process”), and ask for a completion of procedures letter once the internal process is exhausted.

5. Escalate to the OIA. Once you have a completion of procedures letter, you can complain to the Office of the Independent Adjudicator for Higher Education, which handles student complaints against universities in England and Wales and can consider whether the university followed a fair and proper procedure. This is free to you.

6. Raise regulatory concerns with the OfS. The OfS does not resolve individual complaints, but it does take notifications about providers that may not be complying with conditions of registration such as E6. A pattern of forcing complainants into mediation is exactly the kind of thing the condition was designed to prevent.

7. Preserve evidence and support. Keep copies of all emails and policy versions, note dates of conversations, and consider using the university’s specialist support services (for example a sexual violence liaison or a students’ union adviser) who can accompany and support you and help hold the process to its own rules.

Where court action fits

Formal litigation is rarely the sensible first step here. Your relationship with the university is contractual, and a serious procedural failure could in principle support a claim, and in some circumstances there may be Equality Act 2010 angles if the harassment relates to a protected characteristic and the university’s handling amounts to a failure to act. But those routes are slow, costly and stressful, and the internal process and the OIA are designed to resolve exactly this kind of dispute more quickly and without cost. Keep the possibility of legal action in reserve rather than leading with it.

Key point to hold onto

You cannot be compelled to mediate or to accept informal resolution of a harassment or sexual misconduct complaint. These routes require your genuine, uncoerced consent, and for serious sexual misconduct they will usually be inappropriate altogether. If the university is treating mediation as a hurdle you must clear before it will investigate, ask it in writing to justify that against its own policy and condition E6, and escalate to the OIA and, if appropriate, notify the OfS if it does not change course.