Liability for harassment at partner college

Short answer

Responsibility usually rests with more than one body at the same time, and which one you should pursue depends on how the arrangement is structured and what kind of claim or complaint you want to make. In broad terms, the university or college you are registered with (the “lead” or awarding provider) generally retains overall responsibility for you, even where the actual teaching is delivered by a partner college in the UK or by an overseas campus or partner. The delivery partner may also carry direct responsibility, and individual perpetrators remain personally responsible for their own conduct.

Because your question could mean the regulatory duty to prevent and respond to harassment and sexual misconduct, or a legal claim for compensation, or an internal complaint, the answer differs slightly for each. I have set them out separately below.

The regulatory position: Office for Students condition E6

From 1 August 2025 a new ongoing condition of registration, condition E6, applies to higher education providers registered with the Office for Students (OfS) in England. It sets minimum requirements for how providers must protect students from, and respond to, harassment and sexual misconduct.

The key point for your question is that condition E6 is drafted deliberately widely. It applies to courses provided “in any manner or form by, or on behalf of” a registered provider. According to the OfS guidance, this expressly includes UK-based and non-UK-based students, and courses delivered through partnership arrangements both within the UK and internationally. It also covers students who are registered with the provider, taught by the provider, or studying for an award of the provider, or where those services are provided on the provider’s behalf.

The practical effect is that a registered provider cannot escape its E6 responsibilities simply because the teaching is subcontracted to a partner college or delivered at an overseas campus. If you are registered with, taught by, or studying for the award of a registered provider, the registered provider is expected to ensure the E6 protections apply to you.

Franchised and subcontracted delivery in the UK

In a subcontractual (often called franchised) partnership, you are typically registered at, and receive your qualification from, the lead provider, but are taught for some or all of your course at a delivery partner. The OfS position is that the lead provider retains responsibility for ensuring that regulatory requirements, including E6, are met for all such students, exactly as it must for the students it teaches directly.

If the delivery partner is itself registered with the OfS, it is also independently responsible for meeting the regulatory requirements for all of its higher education provision, including teaching subcontracted to it. So responsibility can sit with both bodies at once.

If the delivery partner is not registered with the OfS, the delivery partner is not directly regulated by the OfS, but the lead provider remains on the hook to the regulator for making sure the conditions are satisfied in respect of you.

Overseas campuses and international partners

The same underlying principle applies to international delivery. Condition E6 extends to non-UK-based students and to courses delivered internationally on the provider’s behalf, so the UK registered provider retains its regulatory responsibility for you even if you are studying at an overseas branch campus or with an overseas partner.

However, the regulatory reach of the OfS is one thing; the legal remedies available to you may be affected by where the conduct occurred, who employed the perpetrator, and which law governs your student contract. Overseas delivery frequently raises questions of governing law and jurisdiction that can materially change what claim you can bring and where. This is one of the missing facts that most affects the answer.

Legal responsibility as distinct from regulation

Regulatory responsibility under condition E6 is about the OfS being able to hold a provider to account. It is not the same as your ability to claim compensation. Several distinct legal routes may be relevant, and the responsible party differs for each.

Personal responsibility of the perpetrator. Whoever committed the harassment or sexual misconduct is personally responsible for their own conduct. Depending on the facts this may amount to a criminal offence, or give rise to a civil claim, and where the conduct occurred abroad the relevant criminal and civil law may be that of the other country.

Vicarious liability of the employer. An employer can be legally responsible for wrongful acts committed by its employees in the course of employment. If the perpetrator was employed by the delivery partner or overseas campus rather than by your home institution, that employer may be the correct defendant. The precise employment relationship is therefore critical.

Equality Act 2010. The Equality Act applies to conduct within Great Britain. Harassment related to a protected characteristic, and sexual harassment, are prohibited by a “responsible body” (for higher education, the governing body of the institution). Its territorial application to conduct occurring wholly overseas is limited, so this route is much stronger for conduct that happened in England or Wales than for conduct at an overseas campus.

Breach of contract. Your relationship with your provider is contractual. The provider that contracts with you, ordinarily the awarding or lead provider, may owe you contractual obligations, including obligations relating to a safe learning environment and the handling of complaints. The contract terms, and any governing law and jurisdiction clause, determine who you can sue and where.

Negligence. A provider or delivery partner may owe a duty of care in relation to student safety. Whether a duty was breached is fact-specific.

Complaints and the Office of the Independent Adjudicator

Separate from litigation, you can complain internally and then escalate. The lead provider’s own student complaints and misconduct procedures should apply to you even where teaching is delivered by a partner, and E6 requires accessible reporting and fair, effective processes.

After you exhaust the internal process, if your provider is a member of the Office of the Independent Adjudicator for Higher Education (OIA) scheme, you can usually bring a complaint to the OIA. The OIA’s scheme generally covers students of qualifying providers, including in respect of collaborative and overseas provision in many cases, but coverage can depend on how the arrangement is set up, so it is worth checking your provider’s membership and the scheme rules for your specific situation.

Practical next steps

1. Preserve evidence now. Keep messages, emails, dates, names, witnesses and a written timeline. This matters for every route, criminal, civil, regulatory and internal.

2. Identify the structure. Establish who you are registered with, who awards your qualification, who employs the individual involved, and whether teaching is franchised or delivered at a branch campus. This single set of facts determines who is responsible.

3. Check the safety and reporting options. If there is any immediate risk, consider contacting the police or local emergency services where you are, and use the provider’s reporting and support channels.

4. Use the internal process. Report through your lead provider, not only the delivery partner, and ask in writing which policy applies and who is handling it. Keep the reference and correspondence.

5. Read your student contract and offer documents. Look for the governing law and jurisdiction clause, complaints procedure, and any statement about partner or overseas delivery.

6. Escalate externally. After the internal process, consider the OIA (for provider members), and consider whether an Equality Act or contract claim is realistic given where the conduct occurred. Time limits differ, and Equality Act claims in particular have short limits, so check the relevant limitation period early.

7. Consider the OfS. The OfS regulates providers, not individual complaints, so it will not resolve your personal case, but reporting can be relevant where a provider is systemically failing its E6 duties.

Key facts that would change the answer

To give you a more definite answer, the decisive details are which institution you are registered with and which awards your qualification, whether the delivery partner is itself registered with the OfS, whether the conduct happened in England or Wales or overseas, who employed or engaged the person responsible, whether the perpetrator was staff or another student, and what your student contract says about governing law, jurisdiction and complaints. If you tell me these, I can identify the specific responsible body and the strongest route for your circumstances.