Violent students terrify staff

The shocking extent to which university staff face violence, intimidation and harassment at the hands of students is revealed today following an investigation by The Times Higher .

According to information released to The Times Higher under the Freedom of Information Act, over the past five years universities and colleges have recorded more than 1,000 incidents of student aggression towards staff, which have sometimes led to serious injury.

There are reports of students in possession of offensive weapons and staff are reported to have received death threats and been victims of stalking, sexual harassment and indecent exposure. In one case, an assault on a member of staff led to a prison sentence for a student.

The figures could represent the tip of an iceberg because 37 institutions reported that they had not recorded any incidents of aggression in the past five years.

Experts said this demonstrated that the issue was not being taken seriously enough by some institutions and that staff were afraid to speak out.

The Association of University Teachers and lecturers' union Natfhe have called on the higher education sector, including the funding councils, to take action.

Andy Pike, a Natfhe national official, said: "We are horrified at the extent of student violence against academics. We are also deeply concerned that some institutions appear to be doing so little to protect their staff."

Sally Hunt, general secretary of the AUT, said she found it hard to believe there were no incidents at some universities and she asked them to re-evaluate their procedures and policies.

She said: "These figures indicate a very worrying trend and have brought to light what for many has been a hidden issue."

Deborah Lee, senior sociology lecturer at Nottingham Trent University, has studied students' behaviour towards staff.

Dr Lee said: "Perhaps it is about time we had a campaign, such as that we have seen in hospitals and in public transport, making it clear that abuse against staff will not be tolerated."

The Times Higher's FoI request uncovered 1,010 incidents reported in health and safety records and student disciplinary files.

There were 178 incidents of physical violence against staff and 832 cases of threatening or intimidating behaviour, including sexual harassment, stalking and verbal and written threats.

Although many of the respondents did not categorise staff as academic or non-academic, more than 100 (11 acts of violence and 96 incidents of harassment, threats and so on) of the incidents concerned lecturers or academic-related staff.

The record-keeping of universities varied dramatically.

Kingston University had one of the best recording policies. It outlined 197 incidents in detail relating to events after 2000.

Kingston confirmed that there were at least 20 cases of assault - one against a member of academic staff, three against student union staff and 16 against security staff. A total of 32 of its academic or academic support staff experienced aggressive behaviour.

Kingston personnel director Liz Lanchbery said that rather than suggesting the university was not a safe place to work, the figures showed how seriously Kingston took the issue.

phil.baty@thes.co.uk