Understanding the Patterns of Hate Incidents and Reporting Attitudes at a UK University

Abstract

Widening participation, through diversity and inclusion, has become a major goal to achieve in UK Higher Education, with the potential of the most able, rather than simply the socially advantaged, attending university. Addressing challenges of racism and religiously motivated hate incidents in universities is important if we are to provide an educational environment in which all can feel safe to learn. The current study is a survey investigation and one of the very largest of its kind in the UK. The focus is on the extent of hate crime incidents and patterns of reporting the incidents by students and staff at a university in the North East of England. All staff and students were invited to take part in the anonymous survey, generating a sample of 2,265 respondents. Of those who responded, 27% indicated that they had experienced a hate incident, and only 20% of those who had experienced an incident also reported it. The survey results, counterintuitively, and for some no doubt controversially, showed relatively small differences in the patterns of experiencing hate incidents motivated by race or religion across different subgroups in the sample. Students and staff with disabilities were the group most likely to report experiencing hate crime, both within and outside the university. The findings have research and policy implications. There is a need for establishing clear institutional policies on reporting pathways and procedures, maintaining an effective system for information, help, support, and advice.