Critical examinations of sexual harassment policies in Higher Education

One of the first steps universities take to protect staff and students from sexual
and gender-based violence is to create policy. This study examines policies related to staff sexual misconduct enacted towards students through positions of institutional and personal power. It undertakes three core activities: updating and archiving existing literature on the legal history of sexual harassment in the workplace in the UK, US and EU; carrying out discourse and language analysis of a sample of UK university policies; and comparing these with analogous workplace sexual harassment policies in the UK, EU, and US. The study aims to examine how a change in the language of policy can support change in culture within higher education. This project is a necessary first step towards a wider programme of formulating best practice guidelines towards addressing staff sexual misconduct in higher education.