Taking steps to prevent staff sexual harassment by students

Posted: 29/01/2025

It has been three months since the Equality Act 2010 was amended to introduce a new positive duty on employers to take reasonable steps to prevent workplace sexual harassment. The employment team’s previous article, published in October 2024, details the nature of the duty and considers the types of steps employers will be expected to take.

What is particularly relevant is that this duty extends not only to possible sexual harassment by fellow employees, but also to any third parties with whom staff may come into contact in the course of their employment. Academic staff will encounter a variety of third parties, but key among them will be their students. How should institutions approach the duty to prevent sexual harassment by students of their staff?

The law

By way of a reminder, the new law requires employers to take a proactive, rather than reactive, approach to preventing all sexual harassment in the workplace. This involves employers anticipating scenarios where there is a risk that their employees may be subject to sexual harassment, and taking reasonable preventative steps to address these risks.

The new law does not provide a freestanding ground of complaint, but rather grants employment tribunals the power to uplift compensation by up to 25% where an employer is found to have breached this new duty. Additionally, the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) will be able to take enforcement action against organisations that breach the duty. As such action is public, this could cause significant reputational harm to affected institutions.

What should academic institutions do?

The EHRC's technical guidance is a helpful starting point for employers when taking appropriate action to comply with the duty.

Key to any action plan will be a comprehensive risk assessment, considering particular factors that may make harassment of staff by students more likely. Risks are likely to include:

• the power imbalance that exists between staff and students;
• the fact that, in some subject areas, the teaching staff and/or the student body may be male or female dominated;
• the likely difference in age between staff and students;
• the possibility of students being alone with teaching staff;
• the likelihood of staff and student contact going beyond teaching and extending to social and other activities which may nevertheless still be within the course of employment for the staff member;
• the possibility of alcohol being involved in social occasions where staff and students are present; and
• the fact that students may not be used to expectations of ‘professional’ behaviour and that there may be some blurring of the lines between staff and students, particularly at social events.

Having assessed the risks associated with staff and student contact, institutions should then take reasonable steps to mitigate those risks. This is likely to involve a variety of actions, including putting in place effective policies to ensure that staff and students are aware of what sexual harassment is, and the fact that it will not be tolerated in the workplace. This may involve updating and expanding existing staff policies or codes of conduct, as well as student policies, with a particular focus on ensuring that students are aware of the behavioural expectations on them and the possible consequences of non-compliance.

Many universities and other institutions will already have in place a policy prohibiting staff/student relationships, and this should be reviewed and expanded upon.

Policies should make clear to employees how to respond to behaviour from students that they consider to be sexual harassment and should include clear processes for reporting misconduct. Students and staff should be clearly informed about how any allegations of sexual harassment will be dealt with.  

The EHRC’s guidance emphasises the need for policies to be clearly communicated and regularly reviewed and updated, as well as the importance of effective training. Institutions will need to give careful thought to how this is done, taking into account the fact that the methods of communicating policies to students may need to be different from the methods used for staff.

We are offering a free 15-minute telephone call to understand how prepared you are for the new duty and how we might be able to support you. Following this call, there are a number of ways in which we can help, depending on your needs and budget. These could include a round-table discussion, an audit of your policies and procedures, training for your staff, or advice on ongoing monitoring and compliance.

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