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CCR MT Week 3 2026 Motions

Staff on Student Sexual Harassment & Misconduct

This motion calls on Oxford SU to support mandating policy change in relation to employed staff accused of staff on student sexual misconduct.

Conference Notes:  

  • Staff on student sexual harassment and misconduct creates an unsafe environment for students on campuses across the UK and worldwide. Cases are under-reported and data relating to the numbers of staff on student sexual misconduct cases is not consistently gathered by institutions or government, meaning that tracking the numbers of cases across the UK is not possible, creating a lack of information and accountability. 
  • Within the University of Oxford and its colleges, there have been concerns that university employment practice is also facilitating a lack of accountability. Specifically - that staff are being hired without appropriate checks on their own history of sexual misconduct, that staff are being allowed to resign out of investigations or even after serious upheld complaints, and that even when these processes have occurred, information is being withheld including with confidentiality clauses - as part of settlement agreements and as requests for Anonymity Orders to local courts. 
  • Stories this year published about Oxford include: 
  • An academic who left his university position after multiple complaints of sexual harassment was allowed to continue in his college role for a further 6 years until the story was revealed by the press [Source: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-11-28/oxford-fellow-steps-down-from-roles-following-misconduct-claims] 
  • That Oxford reportedly ‘withheld information about sexual harassment’ of this academic to both his college and to three academic bodies who submitted a joint letter asking whether it was safe to invite the professor to attend conferences given reports that he had “abused his position of power in harassing students”. [Source: https://www.thetimes.com/uk/education/article/oxford-university-sexual-harassment-allegations-trvwcsh2q. Further evidence of professional bodies seeking and not being given information on whether he was safe to invite can be found https://www.easp.eu/getmedia.php/_media/_archive/20251202113925.html] 
  • Another academic was hired after having already resigned following sexual misconduct at a different university. That academic then had three complaints of sexual harassment at Oxford upheld - and was allowed to resign again. [source: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2025-11-19/oxford-university-has-failed-women-over-harassment-concerns-staff-say] 
  • An Anonymity Order (a court ordered NDA) was requested by the University in relation to a survivor who had been harassed by two academics that stopped her speaking about her own situation - and only later withdrawn after press and survivors made complaints. [source: https://www.thetimes.com/uk/education/article/oxford-university-anonymity-tribunal-xzmg9k03s] 
  • Whilst Oxford as a University has committed to not using NDAs “to prevent the investigation of complaints of sexual misconduct or to prevent responsible whistleblowing” in practice both it and its constituent colleges may be signing settlement agreements that include confidentiality clauses with academics where complaints have been made and even upheld against them. It is on record as having requested a court placed anonymity order on a survivor. 
  • E6 of the Office for Students Conditions of Registration require HE institutions to not put NDAs on students to restrict their ability to discuss their experience of sexual harassment - however there is a loophole that falls outside the letter (but not the spirit) of the rule for a College or University to sign an NDA with a perpetrator which prevents public disclosure of the incident therefore again evading accountability. 
  • IHH has been collaborating with Love & Power, a nation-wide organisation, to address these longstanding issues with the input from and support of professional legal advisors. The campaign has produced a pledge which encourages the following change: 
  • The university completes investigations concerning serious complaints of discrimination and harassment regarding sexual violence regardless of whether the accused resigns; 
  • Faculty and college employers follow the practice of UK government backed aid agencies to not sign silencing protective settlements for those who have had complaints of sexual violence made against them and have either resigned instead of facing a process or had those complaints upheld 
  • All final job candidates are required to declare any adverse findings in harassment proceedings and disclose whether they have been any opened against them in the past ten years that either had adverse findings or were not completed; 
  • Survivor-victims are not silenced by use of anonymity orders, which keep the name of the accused concealed


Conference Believes:  

  • That the Aid Sector had a similar issue of sexual predators being recycled in and out of different organisations resulting publicly in the Oxfam scandal around Haiti. The solution provides a model for us - the FCDO backed Misconduct Disclosure Scheme, where over 380 organisations have signed up to share information about sexual misconduct, resulting in over 220,000 checks and 677 applications being rejected at recruitment stage. [source: https://misconduct-disclosure-scheme.org/] 
  • That institutions' obligations were increased in October 2024 through The Worker Protection (Amendment of Equality Act 2010) 2023 - which introduced a mandatory legal duty for UK employers to proactively take reasonable steps to prevent sexual harassment in the workplace, and puts an obligation on employers to prevent recurrence. 
  • That all students have the right to feel safe from harassment and sexual violence 
  • That the culture and processes outlined above creates an environment free from accountability, where perpetrators are enabled to move between contracts within the Oxford context and further afield without being held fully accountable for their actions 
  • Oxford is particularly susceptible to this situation because of the relationship between the colleges and the university, where college autonomy allows for separately contracted services between the University and the Colleges. 
  • That it is therefore important for both common rooms and the students' union to take a united stand against sexual violence across the whole University context 
  • That by applying a consistent policy and approach across the colleges and the University, perpetrators will no longer be able to move between contracts, or into the wider education sector as a result of these oversights 
  • The university policy should maintain a strict policy with matters of sexual violence and harassment to hold professors, staff and employees accountable.


Conference Resolves:  

  • The SU will sign the pledge as a supporter
  • This SU will lobby the university to sign the pledge and enact the policies and procedures therein


Equality Impact Assessment: 

  • Stated as net positive impact for all listed demographics
  • Any student can be vulnerable, a safer university is better for all