University duty to address harassment

Overview

Harassment or assault by someone who is not a student or staff member (a contractor, visitor, placement provider, delivery driver, member of the public, or similar) still engages the university’s responsibilities to you, even though the university cannot discipline that person as though they were part of its own community. What the university can and should do depends on where the incident happened, who the person was connected to, and whether the conduct was a criminal offence. It is worth separating the university’s own regulatory and welfare obligations from the criminal justice process and from any civil or contractual routes against the perpetrator.

The university’s regulatory duties under Condition E6

Since 1 August 2025 all higher education providers registered with the Office for Students in England are bound by Condition E6 on harassment and sexual misconduct. This condition is important for your situation because the OfS expressly recognises that students can be subjected to harassment or sexual misconduct not only by other students and staff but also by visitors, whether authorised or otherwise, and by third parties such as placement providers.

Under E6 the provider must maintain and publish a single comprehensive document setting out how it protects students from harassment and sexual misconduct, how to report an incident, and what support is available. It must have clear reporting and response arrangements, offer appropriate support to those affected, and take steps to prevent such conduct. The condition also addresses non-disclosure agreements, and the OfS has said providers should consider how to prevent reliance on NDAs in matters involving third parties such as placement providers.

In practical terms this means the university should have a route for you to report the incident even though the perpetrator is not a student or member of staff, should provide or signpost welfare and specialist support regardless of who the perpetrator was, and should take reasonable protective and preventative steps. If it fails to have or follow such arrangements, that is a matter you can raise internally and, ultimately, with the OfS.

What the university should realistically do

The scope of action depends on the perpetrator’s relationship to the university.

Where the person has a contractual or organisational link to the university, the university has real leverage. If the perpetrator is a contractor, agency worker, or an employee of a supplier, the university can raise the matter with that contractor or supplier, invoke terms in the underlying commercial contract, suspend or bar the individual from campus, exclude them from the site, remove them from the contract, or in serious cases terminate the arrangement. If the incident occurred on a placement, the university should engage with the placement provider, consider moving or protecting you, and review whether the placement is safe.

Where the person is a visitor or member of the public, the university controls its own premises. It can use its powers as an occupier to exclude, ban, or issue a trespass warning against the individual, adjust access arrangements, increase security presence, and take steps to keep you and the person apart on campus.

Across all cases the university should:

1. Take the report seriously and record it, without pressuring you into any particular course of action.

2. Offer immediate safety measures, such as adjusting timetables, accommodation, campus access or security escorts, so you can continue your studies safely.

3. Provide welfare support, including access to counselling, a specialist sexual violence liaison or first responder where the incident was sexual, disability or wellbeing services, and academic mitigation such as extensions or deferred assessments.

4. Support you, without pressure, to report criminal conduct to the police, and preserve any relevant evidence such as CCTV, access logs and incident reports.

5. Take proportionate protective and preventative action against the perpetrator using whatever powers it has, whether contractual, occupier-based, or through the third party’s own employer.

The criminal dimension

Assault, sexual assault, stalking and some forms of harassment are criminal offences, and the Protection from Harassment Act 1997 also makes a course of harassing conduct a criminal offence. Because the perpetrator is outside the university’s own disciplinary jurisdiction, the criminal justice system is often the most direct route to accountability against the individual. You can report to the police at any time, and for a serious sexual assault you can also access a Sexual Assault Referral Centre for medical care and forensic evidence collection whether or not you decide to involve the police immediately. The university should facilitate but not obstruct this, and should not treat its own internal process as a substitute for a criminal investigation.

The decision to report to the police is ordinarily yours. Only in limited situations, for example a serious ongoing risk to others or a safeguarding concern, might the university consider acting on the information itself, and a good policy will explain when and why that could happen.

Where the university’s own powers reach their limit

It is important to be realistic about what the university can achieve against a genuine outsider with no contract or ongoing connection to it. It cannot discipline, sanction or investigate a member of the public in the way it could investigate a student. Its role is then focused on protecting you on its own premises, supporting you, and helping you access the police and other external remedies. Do not expect an internal misconduct process to deliver an outcome against a true third party in the way it would against a student.

Civil remedies against the perpetrator

Separately from anything the university does, you may have civil claims against the individual, for example an injunction and damages under the Protection from Harassment Act 1997, or a claim for the tort of assault or battery. These are independent of the criminal process and of the university. Whether they are worth pursuing depends on the seriousness, the evidence, and whether the individual is identifiable and worth suing.

If the university does not respond properly

If the university fails to support you or take reasonable steps, the usual escalation is:

1. Raise it through the university’s own reporting and support arrangements, referring to its harassment and sexual misconduct policy and its Condition E6 obligations.

2. If unresolved, use the university’s formal complaints procedure and obtain a Completion of Procedures letter.

3. Complain to the Office of the Independent Adjudicator for Higher Education, which handles unresolved student complaints about how a university has handled a matter.

4. Raise systemic failures to have or follow adequate arrangements with the Office for Students, which regulates compliance with Condition E6.

The OIA looks at whether the university acted reasonably and followed its own procedures, not at the guilt of the perpetrator, so frame any complaint around the adequacy of the university’s response and support rather than expecting it to adjudicate the assault itself.

Key facts that would sharpen the advice

The most useful details are who the person was and their connection to the university, where the incident happened and whether it was on university premises or a placement, whether the conduct was a one-off or a course of conduct, whether it was sexual in nature, whether you have reported it to the police, and what your specific policy says about third parties. These points determine both what powers the university has and which external remedy is most likely to help you.

Practical next steps

1. Prioritise your safety and, if you are in immediate danger, contact the police on 999.

2. Write down what happened while it is fresh, with dates, times, locations and any witnesses, and preserve messages, photos and anything else relevant.

3. Report the incident to the university through its harassment or sexual misconduct reporting route and ask in writing for specific protective measures and welfare support.

4. Consider reporting to the police, and for a sexual assault consider a Sexual Assault Referral Centre for medical care and evidence, keeping your options open.

5. Ask the university what action it can take against the person given their connection to it, for example excluding a visitor or raising the matter with a contractor or placement provider.

6. If the university’s response is inadequate, use its complaints procedure, then the OIA, and consider raising any systemic failure with the OfS.