Dignity & Respect at GIS

This page is for anyone in the GIS community — students and staff — who wants to understand what harassment and sexual misconduct mean at GIS, how to report a concern, and what support is available. Whether you’re dealing with something yourself, worried about someone else, or just want to know where you stand, this page is for you.

What counts as harassment or sexual misconduct

Harassment is unwanted behaviour that violates someone’s dignity, or creates a hostile, intimidating, humiliating, or offensive environment for them. It doesn’t need to be intentional, and someone doesn’t need to have objected before for it to count.

The law (the Equality Act 2010) defines harassment as unwanted conduct related to things like sex, race, disability, age, or religion. GIS’s own standards go further than that legal minimum — we don’t tolerate this kind of behaviour at GIS regardless of whether it relates to one of those characteristics. Dignity and respect are expected in every interaction here, not only where the law specifically requires it.

Sexual misconduct covers any unwanted sexual conduct, from harassment through to assault — always without consent.

What this can look like

Harassment can take many forms, in person or online. It can include:

• Verbal — insults, offensive jokes, unwanted comments, name-calling or humiliating remarks.
• Discriminatory — comments or behaviour targeting someone’s sex, race, disability, age, religion, or sexual orientation.
• Intimidation — threatening, aggressive, or deliberately intimidating behaviour.
• Unwanted contact — repeated messages or approaches after someone’s made it clear they’re unwelcome.
• Online harassment — offensive comments in forums or group chats, trolling, or deliberately targeting or humiliating someone online.
• Sexual — unwanted sexual comments, jokes, gestures, messages, images, or advances.
• Sharing content — sharing private photos, screenshots, or personal information about someone without their permission.
• Exclusion or isolation — deliberately excluding someone in a way meant to humiliate or undermine them.

This isn’t an exhaustive list — if you’re not sure whether something counts, get in touch anyway.

Consent

Consent means agreeing by choice, with the freedom and capacity to actually make that choice. It has to be freely given, it has to be informed, and it can be withdrawn at any time. Someone can’t consent if they’re being pressured or coerced, or if they’re asleep, unconscious, or their judgement is significantly affected by drugs or alcohol. Being in a relationship with someone doesn’t mean blanket consent to everything — harassment and misconduct can still happen within a relationship.

How to report a concern

You can raise a concern informally or formally — both go to the same place: resolutions@gis.sport.

• Informal — sharing what happened to you, or something you’ve witnessed, without wanting to start a formal process. This is about being heard and getting support. It doesn’t automatically trigger an investigation.
• Formal — submitting a report you want GIS to act on.

You can report anonymously or under your own name. If you stay anonymous, we can’t take formal action against someone based on your report alone — but it can prompt us to look into a concern, and it helps us spot patterns even where no individual action follows.

Anyone can make a report — you, someone who witnessed something, or someone reporting on another person’s behalf.

If you make a named report, you can choose to take no further action for now (support stays available either way), report to the police, or ask GIS to formally look into it. The exceptions are where there’s an immediate risk to someone’s safety, where a young person is involved, or where GIS has a legal duty to act — in those situations we may need to act regardless of your preference.

How we handle your information

Anything you share with us is treated as sensitive and confidential, and only shared with people who genuinely need to know, to investigate, support you, or meet a legal duty. Where there’s a real risk to someone’s safety, we may need to share information without asking first.

Support

Support is available whether or not you make a report — whether you’re the person affected, a witness, or the person a report is about:

• GIS Student Support: studentsupport@gis.sport
• Health Assured (free, confidential, 24/7, 365 days a year) — UK students can call 0800 028 0199; international students can use the Wisdom App (access code MHA297177).

How we investigate and decide

Cases are looked into by trained staff, sometimes with an appropriately experienced panel for more serious matters. Decisions are made on the balance of probabilities — whether it’s more likely than not that something happened — not the higher standard used in criminal courts. If police are involved, our own process pauses while theirs is ongoing and resumes independently afterwards; a criminal outcome doesn’t automatically decide our own outcome, since the standards are different. Anyone accused of something will always be told what’s alleged and given a fair chance to respond before any decision is made.

Outcomes and if you’re unhappy with one

Whoever made the report is told whether it was upheld. Whoever the report was about is told the outcome and any consequences, and has the right to appeal. If you’re not satisfied with how your case was handled, you can ask for it to be reviewed — just get in touch and we’ll talk you through how.

Staff-student relationships

GIS has separate rules covering personal relationships between staff and students, including when and how they need to be declared. If your concern involves this kind of relationship, both that policy and this page apply together — just get in touch and we’ll help you understand what that means for your situation.

Being an active bystander

If you see or sense something’s wrong, you don’t need to confront it head-on to make a difference. Some things help in the moment; others matter just as much afterwards.

In the moment:

• Distract — interrupt the situation (change the subject, ask an unrelated question).
• Call it Out — address the behaviour directly, only if it’s safe for you to do so.

After the fact:

• Seek Help — flag it to someone with more relevant authority, like a tutor or Resolutions.
• Offer Support — check in with the person affected, even if you didn’t act at the time.
• Document — note down what happened, in case it’s needed later.

You’re never expected to put yourself at risk. Reporting what you’ve seen is always a safe way to act.

Training

All GIS students complete mandatory training on harassment, sexual misconduct, consent, and being an active bystander, as part of induction, available on GIS Moodle.

In-person events

GIS takes extra safeguarding steps for in-person events, including open evenings and Global Summits, particularly where under-18s are involved.

Freedom of speech

GIS is committed to protecting lawful freedom of speech and academic freedom. Course material, or views expressed as part of teaching, research, or academic discussion, won’t usually be treated as harassment under this page.

We don’t use NDAs

GIS does not use non-disclosure agreements, confidentiality clauses, or any other agreement to stop a student or staff member discussing or disclosing an allegation of harassment or sexual misconduct. Nothing in any other GIS agreement should be read as restricting this.