Report Student Behaviour

Reporting Misconduct Form
Use this form to report student or staff misconduct
Student Disciplinary Procedure
Read the Student Disciplinary Procedure

You can report student behaviour for the University taking action using the Reporting Misconduct Form.  We recognise this is difficult and deciding whether to report is your choice. If you feel unable to consider this now but want to know what support and/or routes may be available to you, you can still submit the Reporting Misconduct Form to disclose your experience. Support is available to you at any stage, please see: Harassment and sexual misconduct | Student Support.

After submitting the form, a member of staff will contact you within five working days. They will offer you a meeting where they will explain the different options to you. Submitting the form or attending a meeting does not mean you have to continue, you can decide not to take a report further. In this situation, the form will be retained confidentially for three years and then destroyed.  

Before making a report, it may be useful to know that: 

  • You will never be disadvantaged for raising a genuine complaint. 

  • You will be able to bring a supporter with you to any meetings. 

  • You will be informed of the outcome of your complaint and any resulting actions that have a direct impact on you. 

  • OSCCA does not use non-disclosure agreements for any cases relating to students or staff and you will therefore not be prevented from speaking about the incident/s you have reported. During an investigation, to enable proper investigation, discussion about the matter should be limited to with those who are providing you with support. 

A summary of the steps in University informal and formal reporting processes are available in a student flowchart. If you have any procedural questions you would like to ask before submitting a complaint about a student, please contact oscca@admin.cam.ac.uk. 

This procedure focuses on how the reported behaviour has affected you and aims to limit contact with the other student(s) involved. It does not involve investigating what happened but aims to put a conduct agreement in place. For this Procedure, the process usually takes between one and two months to complete but it can vary dependent on the specifics of the case. You will receive a copy of the full outcome.   

 A possible outcome of this process may include preventing any contact with the other student(s) or limiting their access to some University sites.

What can you expect?    

You will be asked to:   

  •  provide a brief outline of your complaint and the effect it has had on you   
  •  explain any actions you would like the University to consider   
  •  attend a meeting with a staff member from OSCCA to discuss possible actions   
  •  decide whether you want to agree to suggested actions.   

The other student(s) will have a separate meeting with the staff member.    

A full copy of this Procedure can be found at published_informal_complaint_procedure.pdf

The Student Disciplinary Procedure can investigate reports from students, staff and members of the public in relation to student behaviour. If a report is investigated, the University will decide whether the behaviour occurred on a balance of probabilities – more likely than not - and, if so, whether it breaches the University’s Rules of Behaviour. The procedure can lead to sanctions being imposed on the respondent student(s) and this can include outcomes that prohibit any form of contact with the reporting person.  

For this Procedure, depending on the outcome at each stage, a typical case can take between three and six months to complete. Very complex cases can take longer.  

What can you expect?    

The Investigator will send your initial report to the Student Discipline Officer, who will decide whether to commission an investigation.  

If an investigation is commissioned, you will be asked to meet with an OSCCA Investigator, who is a member of the University with specialist training, to:   

  • provide a full account of the behaviour reported; and   
  • include any related evidence and details of witnesses.    

The investigator will also meet with the respondent (the reported student) and any other people, such as witnesses, that they feel are relevant to the investigation. The respondent student will receive a summary of the behaviour reported, this will include your name unless there is exceptional reason not to do so. The investigator will produce a report to be considered by a Student Discipline Officer (SDO).    

You are able to seek support throughout the process and OSCCA does not use 'Non-disclosure agreements' for any cases relating to students. However, while an investigation is ongoing, we do ask everyone involved to not discuss the matter with others, except from those who are providing support. This enables the investigator to gather accounts from individuals about what they remember about an event, rather than what they've spoken about with others or what others have told them.  

Student Discipline Officer (SDO) decision     

The SDO will receive the investigator’s report and all evidence. Using this they will decide whether to:    

  • take no further action   
  • impose SDO sanctions   
  • refer the case to a Discipline Committee.   

Within the current procedure, you and the respondent student will receive a copy of both the decision and the investigation report.   

What to expect at a Discipline Committee   

The Discipline Committee is a panel of three trained members from the University, including a student representative member.   

  • You would be expected to attend a meeting of the Discipline Committee when it decides whether the Rules of Behaviour have been breached by the other student(s).   
  • You can attend in person or online and can have a supporter with you. This can be a person of your choice such as a staff member or friend, as long as they are not a witness.   
  • Other special measures can also be put in place to help you.    
  •  You may be asked to answer questions from the Committee, including those from the respondent student(s) but the respondent student would not ask you questions directly.    
  • Where a finding is made, sanctions can be imposed on the respondent student(s). These may include educative activities, restrictions on access to certain areas of the University, suspension or exclusion from studies.    
  • Regardless of whether a finding is made, the Discipline Committee can direct that there should be no contact or interaction between you and the respondent(s).    
  •  You will receive the Committee decision within five working days of the meeting and the full notes of the meeting within ten working days.    
  • You cannot appeal a decision but can use the Student Complaint Procedure if you wish to raise concerns about your experience.    

A full copy of this Procedure can be found at 2023-10-01_revised_sdf_and_sdp.pdf.

For matters which took place before 1 October 2023, the Procedure is at sdp_-_oct_19.pdf

You can report inappropriate behaviour anonymously via an online form. The University cannot take direct action as a result of anonymous reporting but will collate information you have provided and use it to help monitor the prevalence of incidents and understand the impact of initiatives run by the collegiate University and Students’ Union.

If you believe that a criminal offence may have been committed then you can report the matter to the police. If the incident has taken place in Cambridge then you can find out more information from the Cambridge Constabulary, for example their pages at  Stalking and harassment | Cambridgeshire Constabulary and Rape, sexual assault and other sexual offences | Cambridgeshire Constabulary. 

If you report a matter to the police, you can still report a matter to the University or College. If a criminal investigation is taking place, the University process will usually be paused. It would, however, be possible for the University to limit interaction between you and the reported person in this scenario. Unless the University considers there to be an immediate and significant threat to you or other members of the community, it will never inform the police about a matter you have reported without your consent. 

The procedure for complaining about a student or fellow to a College is likely to be published on the relevant College website. You can seek advice from your Tutor or Senior Tutor, or from the Tutorial Office about how to make a complaint. Where the Senior Tutor is involved you can reach out to the Head of the College. 

With your consent, the University and College(s) may work together to decide how best to investigate a matter. Where the report relates to a student engaging in sexual misconduct you will normally be directed to use the University's procedures. For advice about which procedure to use, speak to your Tutor, the Harassment and Violence Support Service (HVSS) or OSCCA at OSCCA@admin.cam.ac.uk.