Reporting sexual harassment to university

Yes. Sexual harassment and sexual assault are different things, and you do not need to have been sexually assaulted before you can report sexual harassment to your university.

The legal distinction

Sexual assault is a criminal offence involving intentional sexual touching without consent (broadly under the Sexual Offences Act 2003). Sexual harassment is a much wider concept and does not require any physical contact at all.

Under section 26 of the Equality Act 2010, harassment includes unwanted conduct of a sexual nature that has the purpose or effect of violating your dignity, or of creating an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating or offensive environment for you. That can cover a very broad range of behaviour with no touching whatsoever, for example sexual comments, jokes or “banter”, unwanted sexual messages, images or emails, staring or leering, sexual propositions or pressure, displaying sexual material, or spreading sexual rumours. Universities also use the broader term “sexual misconduct” in their own policies, which is wider still than the criminal or Equality Act definitions and is designed to capture exactly this kind of non-assault conduct.

So the absence of any assault does not remove your right to report. It simply means the matter is likely to be dealt with as harassment or sexual misconduct rather than as an allegation of a criminal sexual offence.

Your university’s duty to have a reporting route

Since 1 August 2025, a new regulatory condition (Office for Students condition E6 on harassment and sexual misconduct) applies to registered higher education providers in England. It requires universities to have a single, comprehensive and clearly signposted source of information setting out how students, staff and others can report behaviour that may amount to harassment or sexual misconduct. That obligation is deliberately not limited to sexual assault. Your university should have a policy and a reporting mechanism (often an online reporting or “report and support” tool) that expressly covers harassment and non-contact sexual misconduct.

Universities in Wales are not covered by condition E6, but they are still bound by the Equality Act 2010 and will have their own student conduct and harassment policies providing reporting routes.

Disclosure versus a formal report

Most university policies distinguish between two things, and it is worth understanding the difference before you decide how far to take it:

1. A disclosure, where you tell someone in the university (a tutor, wellbeing team, harassment adviser or support service) what happened, usually to access support. A disclosure on its own does not normally trigger any disciplinary action against the other person.

2. A formal report or complaint, which asks the university to investigate and potentially take disciplinary action under its student (or staff) disciplinary procedures. For formal action to be taken, a formal report normally has to be submitted.

You can choose either. Making a disclosure first can be a sensible way to get support and understand your options without committing to a formal process, and you can usually escalate to a formal report later.

What the process typically involves

If you make a formal report, the matter will normally be dealt with under the student disciplinary regulations (if the alleged perpetrator is a student) or staff HR and disciplinary procedures (if they are a member of staff). The university applies its own standard of proof, usually the civil standard of the balance of probabilities, which is lower than the criminal standard. That means the university can act even where there would not be enough evidence for a criminal prosecution, and even where you have chosen not to involve the police.

You can report to the university and separately report to the police, or do only one, or neither. These are independent routes. A university investigation is about breaches of its own conduct rules, not about criminal guilt.

Missing facts that affect the answer

The right route and likely outcome depend on some details you have not given:

Who the alleged harasser is. If they are a student, staff member, or a third party (such as a contractor or visitor) determines which policy applies and what the university can realistically do.

What the conduct was. Precisely what was said or done, how often, and in what context matters for whether it meets the harassment or sexual misconduct threshold, and for the strength of any complaint.

What evidence exists. Messages, emails, screenshots, social media, witnesses, dates, times and locations all strengthen a report. Preserve anything relevant now.

Whether it is ongoing or a one-off. A continuing course of conduct may justify interim measures such as no-contact arrangements or changes to teaching or accommodation.

Practical next steps

1. Write down a clear, dated account of what happened while it is fresh, including who was present.

2. Preserve evidence such as messages, emails, screenshots and any relevant social media, and note the names of any witnesses.

3. Find your university’s harassment and sexual misconduct policy and its reporting tool. Under condition E6 this should be clearly signposted, often as a “report and support” page.

4. Consider making a disclosure first to a harassment adviser, wellbeing service or the students’ union advice service to get support and understand your options, including any interim protective measures.

5. Decide whether you want a formal report and, if so, submit it through the correct route, keeping copies of everything.

6. If you later feel the university has mishandled the complaint or failed to deal with it properly, you can raise a formal complaint through its complaints procedure and, once that is exhausted, refer the matter to the Office of the Independent Adjudicator for Higher Education (for providers in England and Wales).

Other options

Depending on the conduct, you may also have other routes running in parallel. Serious behaviour may be a criminal matter for the police, for example harassment under the Protection from Harassment Act 1997, sending threatening or grossly offensive messages, or offences involving intimate images. If the harasser is a member of staff and the conduct relates to your studies, the Equality Act 2010 may also give you civil legal options against the university itself in some circumstances. You do not have to choose the university route to the exclusion of everything else.

In short, you can absolutely report sexual harassment to your university even though no sexual assault occurred, and current regulation expects your university to have a clear route for exactly that.