What are harassment and bullying?

What is harassment?

The University uses the legal definitions of harassment drawn from the legislation below:

• Section 26 of the Equality Act 2010 and or
• Section 1 of the Protection from Harassment Act 1997 (in its entirety, and as interpreted by Section 7 of the Act).

The University uses the legal definitions of the offences listed above to make decisions and appropriately characterise conduct in relation to University processes only. The University cannot, and does not, make judgements as to whether alleged conduct constitutes a criminal offence.

For more information, please refer to the Harassment and Bullying Procedure (PDF), the Student Disciplinary Regulations and the Staff Disciplinary Procedure.

Examples of harassment

Harassment is any unwanted behaviour that has the purpose or effect of violating a person's dignity or creating an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating or offensive environment for them. 

Unwanted behaviour could include:

• Unwanted physical conduct or ‘horseplay’, including touching, pinching, pushing, grabbing, brushing past someone, invading their personal space and more serious forms of physical or sexual assault
• Offensive or intimidating comments or gestures, or insensitive jokes or pranks
• Mocking, mimicking or belittling a person’s disability
• Racist, sexist, homophobic or ageist jokes, or derogatory remarks about an ethnic or religious group
• Ignoring or shunning someone, for example, by deliberately excluding them from a conversation or a social activity.

A person may be harassed even if they were not the intended "target" of the harassing behaviour. For example, a person may be harassed by racist jokes about a different ethnic group where the jokes create an offensive environment.

Examples of acts that may constitute harassment can be found in the Harassment and Bullying Procedure (PDF).

Sexual harassment

Sexual harassment is unwanted conduct of a sexual nature or that is related to gender reassignment or sex, that has the purpose or effect of violating a person’s dignity, or creating an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating or offensive environment for them.

You don’t need to have previously objected to someone's behaviour for it to be considered unwanted. 

Sexual harassment can include: 

• Sexual comments or jokes
• Physical behaviour, including unwelcome sexual advances, touching and various forms of sexual assault
• Displaying pictures, photos or drawings of a sexual nature
• Sending emails with a sexual content. 

Sexual harassment is a form of sexual misconduct.

For more information, please refer to What is sexual misconduct? page and our Sexual Misconduct Procedure (PDF).

Protected characteristics

Section 26 of the Equality Act 2010 sets out a definition of harassment that refers to unwanted conduct related to a relevant protected characteristic, that has the purpose or effect of violating a person’s dignity, or creating an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating or offensive environment for them.

The protected characteristics recognised in the Equality Act 2010 are: 

age;

disability;

gender reassignment;

race;

religion or belief;

sex;

sexual orientation;

pregnancy and maternity;

marriage and civil partnership.

“Purpose or effect”

Within the Equality Act 2010 definition of harassment and sexual harassment, ‘purpose’ refers to the intent or motivation behind a person’s unwanted conduct, whereas ‘effect’ means the impact of the person’s unwanted conduct, regardless of their intent or motivation behind their actions. 

The ‘effect’ of unwanted conduct refers to the subjective perception of the Reporting Party, which is taken into account when considering incidents involving allegations of harassment. However, this is not the only factor that is taken into account, and an objective test is also used in considering this form of misconduct.

What is bullying?

The University defines bullying as unwanted conduct from a person or group that is: 

• Offensive, intimidating, threatening, malicious or insulting, and/or
• An abuse or misuse of power that undermines, humiliates or causes physical or emotional harm to another person or persons. 

Examples of bullying

Bullying encompasses a wide range of conduct. The following are some examples of acts that may constitute bullying. This list is not exhaustive:

• Making physical or psychological threats,
• Making inappropriate or derogatory remarks,
• Publicly shaming or humiliating someone,
• Unreasonably withholding permission to attend training and development,
• Spreading malicious rumours,
• Persistently criticising someone without justification. 

Objectivity and severity

In considering allegations involving claims of harassment, bullying and/or offensive behaviour, an objective test will be used. The test assesses whether it was reasonable for the conduct in question to have had the effect described by the reporting party (for example, violating their dignity, or creating an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating, or offensive environment for them). The context of the incident(s) will be considered, including the circumstances in which the conduct arose, the reasons for the conduct and the relationship between the parties. The conduct under consideration will undergo an initial assessment to determine whether it meets the severity threshold necessary to be categorised as potential misconduct and therefore whether this warrants formal investigation under the appropriate University Procedures.

Freedom of speech

Freedom of speech and expression are recognised as essential in the University’s role in society and as an academic institution. Vigorous speech and comment and academic debate can be distinguished from misconduct. Whilst free speech includes speech that may be offensive or hurtful, speech that amounts to unlawful harassment does not constitute free speech within the law and, therefore, is not protected from disciplinary action. Harassment and/or bullying of an individual who exercises their right to freedom of speech and expression within the law will not be tolerated and will may be subject to disciplinary action.