2025-26
Code of Expected Behaviour
37.1 The Purpose of this Code
37.1.1 This Code establishes expected standards of behaviour for all interactions with the University to ensure fair, honest, and consistent treatment of everyone in our community.
37.1.2 The Code explains how we support positive engagement. In some circumstances the University may need to take action to protect/promote the wellbeing of its students, staff or the programmes, services, and activities, whether academic, administrative, or co-curricular, to provide everyone engaging with the University with the best possible experience. This Code sets out how we identify and respond to those types of engagement. The aim of the Code is to support everyone engaging with us to do so positively.
37.2 Who is Covered by this Code?
37.2.1 This Code covers all who engage with the University, including: students, alumni, representatives, staff, affiliates, suppliers and members of the public, with whom the University communicates including those engaged with one or more of the University’s other codes and procedures (e.g. Student Conduct, Complaints, Academic Appeals, Fitness to Practise, or Support to Study and relevant HR procedures).
37.2.2 For the purposes of this Code, engagement includes all forms of contact including verbal (over the phone, in person, etc.), written (letters, emails, online forms, etc.) as well as in person learning and teaching at University events, training sessions, and all online activity. Online comments about the University or individual staff members, which are shared publicly or in a forum or way that means they are not private, count as engagement even when they are not shared directly with the University.
37.3 Supporting Positive Behaviour
37.3.1 The University supports positive behaviour[1] and will explain clearly what is expected from members of our community to provide the best possible experience when engaging with the University.
37.3.2 Supporting positive engagement includes supporting people to express concerns about the University and its academic and administrative activities in a constructive manner by ensuring:
a) the University applies its policies and procedures, including its Complaints Handling Procedure, fairly and openly when individual concerns are raised;
b) concerns can be raised about academic and administrative activities without putting University staff or their ability to investigate these concerns at risk;
c) the University provides information so people understand what procedure or policy they are engaged with, at what stage, and what options they have for challenging decisions at each stage of the process;
d) when the University’s process has concluded it will clearly explain when ongoing engagement is no longer constructive and would not lead to a change in outcome.
37.4 Making Reasonable Adjustments
37.4.1 The University is committed to ensuring that all people have an equal opportunity to access its services and do this actively by considering accessibility when designing the way academic and administrative activities are provided. The University tries to anticipate users’ requirements and encourages all users to tell us if adjustments are required. If it is decided that engagement with an individual needs to be managed, accessibility needs will be considered when doing so.
37.5 Approaches to Managing Behaviours
37.5.1 Positive behaviours are supported, however there are some situations that require response to or management because of the negative impact on the wellbeing of our staff and students, and on the University’s ability to deliver its learning and teaching and administrative activities. The University does not need to actively respond to or manage any form of engagement simply because it is different or unusual. The University will support individuals who may be upset and distressed when they make contact, including seeking, whenever possible to restore the relationship and to try to ensure respectful and meaningful engagement. However, it is recognised that this is not always achievable and that there may be some instances where action is required to protect the University community.
37.5.2 Whenever possible efforts will be made to restore the relationship and to ensure communication can resume as normal. However, it is recognised there may be a need to take action if the situation becomes unacceptably challenging, is resulting in unreasonable demands on the University or its staff or unreasonable behaviour towards University staff and others.
37.5.3 The University will ensure that responses are proportionate to the behaviour and the impact of that behaviour on the University and its staff, and where applicable our students. This guidance gives general advice, but, whenever possible, a clear explanation of the reason for any specific decision will be given to the person affected and/or a separate record documented if an explanation is not possible or appropriate.
37.5.4 When making decisions, it is important to remember that the University needs to assess behaviour reasonably and consistently.
37.5.5 At all times, the University will work to ensure its response is proportionate and necessary and uses the least restrictive method available.
37.5.6 The decision whether to take action under this Code does not affect the right of any member of University staff to manage contact they find personally distressing or uncomfortable. This is because it is not appropriate for anyone to continue to engage if they are becoming distressed or it is having a negative impact on them. This is the case even if it is decided that the criteria for further escalation are not met. There is more information on this in the supporting staff section below.
37.6 Restorative Approaches, Recovering the Relationship
37.6.1 Where appropriate, staff will seek to act in ways that recover the relationship.
37.6.2 For example, staff may seek to defuse and de-escalate by suggesting breaks if conversations are becoming heated; intervene early before behaviour escalates; make proactive adjustments to help individuals manage the anxiety and stress of engaging with us and actively managing expectations. This can help to prevent issues from arising in the first place.
37.6.2 Reasonable adjustments will be made when appropriate to help individuals remain actively and positively involved with the University and, where appropriate, referral to other University services will be made where we believe positive support and interventions may be beneficial. It can be detrimental to positive engagement to continue a conversation which has become circular or repeats statements already made by other colleagues. If this happens, we will end the conversation and seek to re-engage again later, if appropriate.
37.7 Actively Managing Behaviour
37.7.1 When restorative approaches are not possible, appropriate or have been tried and failed, an active management approach will be taken. Active management seeks to maintain our ability to deliver our activities while minimising the impact of the situation that is causing the disruption. It is important to note that this may not be the fault of an individual but because of circumstances outwith their control.
37.7.2 The approach used should be tailored to the individual and the situation. This could include:
- restricting contact by channel (e.g. phone or email) or to a named person;
- communicating through a third party such as a representative rather than by direct contact;
- directing phone calls to an automated service (when phone contact is blocking others from accessing our service or is abusive); or
- restricting time/volume of contact.
37.7.3 To ensure consistency, a decision to actively manage a situation needs to be made in consultation with the relevant line-manager. All such restrictions require to be supported by evidence and can be challenged by an appeal to the relevant senior member of staff involved, in the first instance.
37.7.4 Restrictions are normally subject to review at appropriate intervals. Staff retain the discretion not to review restrictions if the reason for the restriction means that would not be appropriate (for example, if it is to protect staff from violence). The timing and circumstances where review would be considered should be explained clearly to the person who is under restriction at the time the restriction is put in place.
37.8 Protecting our Community
37.8.1 There are some situations that are not acceptable and where action will always be taken. The University has zero tolerance of threats, violent and abusive behaviour. This is to ensure safety and wellbeing and also protects the University, its staff, students and others.
37.8.2 There is advice below on identifying situations that are not acceptable. Staff always need to take action to respond to or, where appropriate to disengage, when these happen and should always raise with a manager what has happened and any steps they were able to take. It is important to note that in some situations, the only appropriate action is to end contact immediately.
37.9 Disruptive Behaviour
37.9.1 Behaviour which disrupts or interferes with any programmes, services, and activities, whether academic, administrative, or co-curricular or other University activity is not acceptable. This mayinclude:
- persistently interrupting others;
- behaviour which distracts other from the main activity, or disrupts the good order of the event, including behaviour in all teaching/learning settings;
- engaging in antisocial behaviour;
- aggressive or abusive behaviour.
Phone or face-to-face contact
37.9.2 Where violent behaviour is actual or threatened, the incident may be reported to the police. All personal contact with the person who has acted violently or threatened violence will be ended and further communication will take place only through a specific third party or be restricted to written communication. The matter may also be dealt with under the Code of Student Conduct if the person is a registered student of the University, or under the University’s staff disciplinary procedures if the person is an employee.
37.9.3 Where abusive or derogatory language is used, either spoken or written, the person concerned will be asked to modify their language. The University will not respond to ongoing abusive correspondence. The University may also exercise its right to end personal communication with the individual concerned and require any future communication to take place through a third party. The matter may be referred under the Code of Student Conduct if the person is a registered student of the University or to the University’s staff disciplinary procedures if the person is an employee.
37.9.4 During phone or face-to-face contact staff should issue a warning before ending contact if it is safe and they consider it appropriate to do so, but a warning is not required if it would be unsafe to do so or the language is intense, deeply upsetting or extreme.
37.9.5 Recording of any conversation is only acceptable with the prior consent of those involved in the conversation. If staff are informed that they are being recorded for later use in public or are being live-streamed, they need to end contact politely but immediately. As noted below, depending on the surrounding circumstances, recording conversations without permission or knowledge of one or more of the other parties could also come under the category of harassment and may be dealt with under the Code of Student Conduct if the person is a registered student of the University or to the University’s staff disciplinary procedures if the person is an employee.
Written or email correspondence to the University
37.9.6 If violent, abusive or demeaning correspondence including communication which includes indecent or offensive language is received, the sender should be informed this is unacceptable. This could be done by a manager or from an email address that is not linked to an individual if this has been aimed at an individual staff member or student.
37.9.7 We will not respond directly to the correspondence or any casework related information within it. In some cases, particularly if there is an indication of a risk to health or safety or a public interest, evidence that is supplied with the correspondence as part of an investigation may be used.
37.9.8 The decision that correspondence is unacceptable should be made by a manager to ensure consistency. Where this behaviour is repeated despite warnings or an individual instance is regarded as at the higher end of abusive steps may need to be taken to restrict methods of contact with the University.
Online, web and social media
37.9.9 This is a fast-moving and changing area; nevertheless, the principles outlined in this Code will still apply. The University will follow the best practice advice available at the time of any incident and note and record the reasons for our decisions. Actions may include:
- blocking accounts or using other technical options available on the relevant platform to minimise exposure e.g. using the relevant social media platform’s own reporting mechanisms to seek to have the content removed;
- limiting contact with the individual through other channels to reduce risk to staff – this could include ensuring the person is not provided with contact details;
- direct threats on social media should be dealt with like any physical threat (see below).
Physical threats
37.9.10 Where violent behaviour is actual or threatened, the incident will normally be reported to the police. All personal contact with the person who acted violently, or threatened violence, will be ended and further communication will take place only through a specific third party, or be restricted to written communication which will be channelled through one point of contact within the University. The matter will be dealt with under the Code of Student Conduct if the person is a registered student of the University, or under the University’s staff disciplinary procedures if the person is an employee.
37.9.11 Where abusive language is used, either spoken or written, the person concerned will be asked to modify their language. The University will not respond to ongoing abusive correspondence and, it may also exercise its right to end personal communication with the individual concerned and require any future communication to take place through a third party or be restricted to written communication which will be channelled through one point of contact within the University. Again, the matter is likely to be referred under the Code of Student Conduct if the person is a registered student of the University or to the University’s staff disciplinary procedures if the person is an employee.
37.9.12 It should be noted that deciding to contact the police is a matter of judgment and in some cases may not be appropriate (if, for example, the threat is immediately withdrawn and was clearly flippant). However, this is an important safeguard and the person who receives the threat, and particularly anyone who has been personally threatened, should not make a decision to not inform the police alone. It should be made by a manager who should clearly record the decision. The manager should take into account not only the views of the staff member but also consider the impact on other staff who may come into contact with the individual. If other staff have witnessed the event, they should all be asked to put this on record.
37.10 Identifying Types of Behaviour We Need to Manage
37.10.1 It is important that consistency is applied when approaches are taken to manage behaviour and below are examples of when the use of one of the approaches above will be applied. This list is not exhaustive and staff can manage types of behaviour not listed if they are impacting negatively on individuals or on the University’s ability to provide its programmes, services, and activities.
Violence and aggressive behaviour
37.10.2 Violence towards staff, students or others will not be tolerated.
37.10.3 Violence is not restricted to acts of aggression that may result in physical harm. It also includes:
- actions or language (whether verbal or written) that would reasonably cause someone to feel offended, afraid or threatened;
- inappropriate gestures; and
- inappropriate language.
Abuse
37.10.4 Abuse of staff or others will not be tolerated.
37.10.5 Abusive language includes all language that is designed, or could be perceived as designed, to insult or degrade, is racist, sexist or homophobic, or which makes serious allegations that individuals have committed criminal, corrupt or perverse conduct without any supporting evidence.
37.10.6 Language which makes unfounded allegations about an individual’s professional ability or capability or seeks to belittle or denigrate them personally is also unacceptable.
37.10.7 Violent or abusive comments sent to the University which are not aimed at us or our staff but at third parties are still unacceptable because of the effect that listening or reading them may have on our staff.
37.10.8 Violent, abusive or offensive comments made about the University or University staff on social media which are designed to be, or which it is reasonable to assume may be, shared or made public are also covered for the same reason, even if they are not shared directly with us.
Harassment
37.10.9 Harassment of any member of the University community, whether accompanied or not by violence or abusive comments, is not acceptable.
Examples of harassment may include:
- repeatedly contacting or continuing to contact individual staff members when previously asked not to;
- contacting staff outside of the office to seek to influence them;
- targeting and naming staff on public or other easily shared social media;
- expecting staff to discuss complaints or grievances in a public context (such as lectures or seminars);
- persistent emails or mass circulation of emails;
- making lengthy or repeated phone calls;
- expecting attention from staff outside normal office hours;[2]
- repeated approaches, including to other members of staff, when due process has already commenced or has been completed.
Demands on the University and our community
37.10.10 A demand becomes unacceptable when it starts to (or when complying with the demand would) impact substantially on the work of the University and/or its staff. An example of such impact would be that the demand takes up an excessive amount of staff time and, in so doing, disadvantages other users/stakeholders and prevents us from providing a service to the person making the demands within a reasonable timescale. Unreasonable demands may also be considered harassment (see above).
37.10.11 Examples of actions grouped under this heading include:
- repeatedly demanding responses within an unreasonable timescale;
- insisting on seeing or speaking to a particular member of staff when that is not possible or appropriate;
- repeatedly changing the substance of the issue or raising unrelated concerns;
- making lengthy or repeated phone calls[3] and unreasonably expecting attention from staff;
- approaches to other members of staff when due process has already commenced or has been completed.
Levels of contact
37.10.12 Sometimes the volume and duration of contact made causes problems. This can occur over a short period, for example, a number of calls in one day or one hour. It may occur when someone repeatedly makes long telephone calls to us or inundates us with information that has been sent already or that is irrelevant to the service we are providing or sends repeated emails raising the same or similar issues.
37.10.13 The University considers that the level of contact has become unacceptable when the amount of time spent on the telephone, or responding to, reviewing and filing emails or written correspondence or managing the contact impacts on our ability to provide a service to that person or to provide a service to others.
Naming and targeting staff publicly
37.10.14 Those who wish to criticise the University online are encouraged not to name individual members of staff. It is made clear that our staff are acting on behalf of the University. Naming individuals online, in contravention of this Code, may lead to restrictions being put in place. Statements that individuals intend to record without permission and then use that recording publicly or to live stream would be regarded as harassment even if there is no directly abusive content to the statement. The University can assist in providing recordings of meetings for personal use as a reasonable adjustment.
Refusal to co-operate
37.10.15 The University supports positive and constructive engagement. Repeated refusals to co-operate makes it difficult for staff to proceed. Where someone has a specific, genuine difficulty complying with a request staff will assist. However, it is considered unreasonable to bring a matter to us, or ask us to provide, and then not respond to reasonable requests. When the refusal to co-operate is by a student we may take the matter forward under the Code of Student Conduct or if appropriate, under the University’s staff disciplinary procedures if the person is an employee.
37.11 Supporting Staff
Empowering staff to end contact they find distressing
37.11.1 All staff have the authority to end any engagement or interaction which they find personally distressing or difficult at the point of occurrence. Staff should not feel they need to continue to engage in contact if it is having a negative impact on them or which is making them feel uncomfortable. Whenever possible and appropriate, staff should seek to end the engagement professionally and politely. This can include:
- explaining they find the situation uncomfortable or distressing and explaining what they need to happen to be able to continue;
- ending a call;
- ending an interview/meeting;
- not reading an email or other correspondence to the
37.11.2 So that all colleagues can be supported, when a member of staff ends an engagement that they find distressing they should take a note of the incident and discuss it with their line (or, if not available, other) manager as soon as possible. Staff will be able to take a short time away from all contact if requested and may request to no longer have contact with a specific individual.
37.11.3 The University has a number of policies in place to support the wellbeing of staff and all staff have access to a confidential support line. Staff who experience an incident that they find distressing should be reminded of these options and supported by their line manager to access them if they wish.
Requesting removal from direct contact
37.11.4 Staff can ask for correspondence to be sent in the name of a senior manager or to be removed completely from involvement in engagement in a particular case or interaction. This may be appropriate if they have concerns about threats; if they have been, or are, at risk of being named publicly; or if any other factor makes them more vulnerable.
37.12 Use of the Complaint Processes
37.12.1 The University has broad discretion whether or not to pursue any complaint made to us. We support the rights of those who are covered by the Complaints Handling Procedure to complain more than once about a service provided by the University and, where they have a continuing relationship, if subsequent incidents occur.
37.12.2 The contact becomes unreasonable when the effect of the repeated complaints is to harass, or to prevent the University from pursuing a legitimate aim or implementing a legitimate decision. We consider access to our Complaints Handling Procedure to be important. It will only be in exceptional circumstances that we would consider such repeated use is unacceptable, but we reserve the right to do so in such cases. Such decisions can only be made by the University Secretary, Deputy University Secretary or their nominee.
37.13 Other Relevant Information
Dignity at Work & Study Policy & Procedure
Fitness to Practise Procedure (Students) (Regulation 36)
Code of Student Conduct (Students (Regulation 33)
Complaints Handling Procedure (Regulation 29)
Disciplinary Procedures (Staff)
Helping Distressed Students: A Guide for Staff
[1] Examples of behaviours can be found in various University policies, including the Code of Student Conduct, the Dignity at Work & Study Policy & Procedure, Code of Professional Conduct (staff), Fitness to Practise Procedure.
[2] Any contact received outside the office should be discussed with a manager who should decide whether this should be recorded. This includes contact via social network sites and social contact in public places. This, in part, reflects the need to ensure there is no appearance of bias and that any conflicts of interest that may not have been apparent at the point of allocation are picked up (for example, where there is significant social overlap). However, it also helps to quickly identify any pattern of the individual seeking direct contact in an inappropriate manner.
[3] See also harassment.