University placement staff harassment

Understanding what you are dealing with

Bullying and harassment on a university placement can involve several overlapping legal and procedural frameworks, and the right route depends on the facts. Before treating what happened as unlawful “harassment” in the legal sense, it is worth separating three different things: conduct that is legally unlawful harassment, conduct that breaches the placement provider’s or university’s own policies, and conduct that is unpleasant or unprofessional but may fall short of a legal wrong. All three can be actionable in some way, but through different routes.

Two important distinctions affect who is responsible. First, “placement staff” could mean staff employed by the host placement organisation (for example an NHS trust, a school, a business, a social work team) or staff employed by the university who manage placements. Who employs the person matters for legal liability and for which complaints procedure applies. Second, some conduct that feels like bullying may in fact be legitimate, if poorly delivered, supervision, feedback, or performance management. That does not excuse genuinely abusive behaviour, but it affects whether a legal test is met and how a complaint is likely to be viewed.

When conduct is legally “harassment”

There are two main legal meanings of harassment in England and Wales.

Under the Equality Act 2010, harassment is unwanted conduct related to a protected characteristic (age, disability, gender reassignment, race, religion or belief, sex, or sexual orientation) that has the purpose or effect of violating your dignity, or creating an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating or offensive environment. It also covers unwanted conduct of a sexual nature. If the bullying is linked to one of these characteristics, the Act may apply. Universities and, in many cases, placement providers have duties under the Act, and a claim can potentially be brought in the County Court for education-related discrimination or in the Employment Tribunal if you are effectively a worker on the placement.

Under the Protection from Harassment Act 1997, harassment is a course of conduct (on at least two occasions) that the perpetrator knows or ought to know amounts to harassment. This can be pursued as a civil claim for an injunction and damages, and serious cases can be a criminal matter reported to the police. This route does not require a protected characteristic but does require a genuine “course of conduct” that a reasonable person would regard as harassment, not merely robust or unwelcome management.

If the conduct does not fit either of these, it may still breach the university’s or the placement provider’s anti-bullying and dignity-at-work or student conduct policies, which typically define bullying and harassment more broadly than the law does.

Who is responsible and which procedure applies

The Office of the Independent Adjudicator for Higher Education (OIA) has made clear that even where a placement is delivered by an external organisation, the university retains ultimate responsibility for decisions relating to your status as a student and to its academic awards. You should be able to raise a complaint about bullying on placement directly with your university, and the university should, where necessary, liaise with the placement organisation to explore the issues. You should not simply be told to use the placement organisation’s internal grievance procedures for something that has affected your studies.

In practice, there are often two interconnected strands. Day-to-day issues that the placement organisation is directly responsible for can sometimes properly be dealt with through that organisation’s own process. But anything that affects your assessment, progression, wellbeing as a student, or your academic outcome is a matter the university must engage with. If, for example, you are appealing a decision that you failed a placement and part of your case is that you were bullied, the university may need to consider the bullying complaint alongside the academic appeal.

Practical steps in a sensible order

1. Gather and preserve evidence now. Keep a dated log of each incident, including what was said or done, who was present, and how it affected you. Save emails, messages, supervision notes, feedback forms, and any witness details. Contemporaneous records are far more persuasive than later recollection, and a “course of conduct” is much easier to establish with dated entries.

2. Check the relevant policies. Look at your university’s student complaints procedure and its dignity, bullying and harassment policy, and the placement handbook or placement agreement. Also check the placement organisation’s own policies if the person is employed there. Note any time limits, which are often measured in a set number of working days from the incident or from when the placement issue arose.

3. Consider raising it informally first if it is safe and appropriate. Many procedures expect an attempt at informal resolution, for example raising it with your placement tutor, academic supervisor, or a designated placement lead at the university. If the behaviour is serious, or you fear retaliation, or informal resolution has failed, you can move straight to a formal complaint.

4. Tell the university’s placement team or your personal tutor promptly, in writing. Ask them to record your concerns and to explain how they will be handled, and whether your placement, supervision, or assessment will be protected in the meantime. If you feel unsafe, ask about being moved or supported.

5. Submit a formal written complaint. Set out the facts clearly and chronologically, identify who was involved, refer to the relevant policy, explain the impact on you and your studies, and say what outcome you are seeking (for example an apology, a change of supervisor, a different placement, protection of your assessment, or an investigation). Keep it factual and measured rather than using legal labels you cannot yet substantiate.

6. Use the Students’ Union advice service or a student advocate. Most SUs offer free, independent, confidential advice and can help you draft the complaint and attend meetings. This support is valuable and independent of the academic staff involved.

If the internal process does not resolve it

Once the university’s internal complaints process is exhausted, it should issue a Completion of Procedures letter. You then normally have twelve months from that letter to complain to the Office of the Independent Adjudicator, which reviews whether the university handled the complaint properly and reasonably. The OIA is free to use and can recommend remedies such as an apology, financial compensation, or that the university reconsider a decision. It is generally the main external route for student complaints against universities in England and Wales.

Separately, if the conduct is discrimination or harassment related to a protected characteristic, you may have a claim under the Equality Act 2010. Education discrimination claims against a university are usually brought in the County Court, with a strict time limit (generally six months, subject to the court’s discretion to extend). If your placement gives you worker status, an Employment Tribunal claim may be possible, with a much shorter time limit (usually three months less one day, subject to early conciliation through Acas). These time limits are short and run independently of the internal complaint, so it is important not to let them pass while waiting for the internal process to finish.

If the behaviour is serious or threatening

If the conduct involves threats, physical intimidation, stalking, sexual harassment or assault, or a persistent campaign against you, it may cross into criminal territory under the Protection from Harassment Act 1997 or other criminal law. You can report this to the police, and you can separately consider a civil claim for an injunction and damages under that Act. Where you feel unsafe on placement, raise safety immediately with both the placement supervisor’s manager and the university, and ask to be removed from contact with the individual pending investigation.

Considering the ordinary explanations

It is worth thinking carefully about how the conduct will be characterised, because placements often involve legitimate assessment and supervision. Critical feedback, being asked to redo work, being marked down, close monitoring, or a manager raising performance concerns are not in themselves bullying, even if delivered bluntly or in a way that upset you. What tends to distinguish bullying and harassment is conduct that is targeted, repeated, demeaning, humiliating, or unrelated to any legitimate purpose, or a single serious incident. Framing your complaint around specific behaviours and their effect, rather than around legal labels, will make it more credible and harder to dismiss as a disagreement about supervision.

Protecting your studies

If the bullying has affected your ability to complete or pass the placement, make sure the university records this and considers it under its academic appeals, mitigating or extenuating circumstances, and fitness to practise or reassessment procedures as appropriate, especially on professional courses such as nursing, medicine, teaching or social work. Ask explicitly that any assessment decision be reviewed in light of the environment you were working in, and keep the complaint and the academic consequences linked so that one is not decided in isolation from the other.

What would help refine this advice

The best route depends on some facts I do not yet have: whether the individual is employed by the university or by the placement host; whether the conduct is linked to a protected characteristic; whether it was a one-off or a repeated course of conduct; whether it has affected your assessment or progression; what your course and university policies say; and how long ago the incidents occurred, given the time limits above. If you can identify those points, the strongest combination is usually a well-evidenced formal internal complaint to the university, supported by the Students’ Union, while keeping an eye on any Equality Act or Acas time limits so that a legal claim is not lost by delay.