Universities’ use of non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) in sexual harassment cases involving staff and students is allowing alleged perpetrators to move to other institutions where they could offend again, according to academics, lawyers and campaigners.
They warn that the prevalence of harassment is being masked because of the use of confidentiality clauses in settlements, which prevent any of the parties discussing what has happened.
Universities that find themselves at the centre of sexual harassment allegations are accused of prioritising their own reputations in an increasingly competitive higher education marketplace over their duty of care to vulnerable students. Those who described concerns include:
- Ann Olivarius, a leading lawyer in the area of sexual harassment in UK and US universities, who said: “Young women are terrified about the consequences if they make a complaint, then when they do, the university’s chief concern is to protect its own reputation by keeping the whole thing quiet.”
- Dr Alison Phipps, director of gender studies at Sussex University, who said her research had taken her into 10-15 universities and it was the same story every time. “The system comes into operation to protect itself.” Universities are operating like businesses, she said, and these types of problems “are thought of in terms of the economic cost, of reputation management, and: ‘What happens if we lose our star professor and his grant income?’”
- Ruth Lewis, coordinator of the Universities Against Gender Based Violence network and senior lecturer in sociology at the University of Northumbria, who raised concerns that NDAs were concealing the true extent of the problem of harassment and violence in UK universities. “They make it very difficult to know how often complaints about harassment or violence from staff or from students are resolved by a private settlement that makes the problem invisible.”
An NDA is a legal contract, used in many areas of business and industry, by which one or more parties agree not to disclose confidential information. They can be used to keep damaging information secret, and can protect a vulnerable victim or witness who may not want their name made public. But in complex cases confidentiality may end up applying to those who haven’t asked for it in order to protect those who have.
Universities UK (UUK), the higher education action group, said there were no statistics on the use of NDAs, but with more than 400,000 employees, a spokesperson said it was likely that settlement agreements were used from time to time when employees departed.
The Department for Education, asked about the prevalence of sexual harassment of students by university staff, and the danger that NDAs were keeping the problem hidden, said: “Sexual harassment is unacceptable and universities’ responsibilities to their students are crystal clear. They must have clear policies in place for the handling of such complaints and ensure students do not face harassment of any kind.
“If a student is unhappy with how a complaint has been dealt with they can speak to the Office of the Independent Adjudicator. Ultimately, if a student feels they have been the victim of a sexual assault they should report it to the police.”
But Olivarius, who is working on a number of allegations of sexual harassment against senior academic staff in the US as well as cases in the UK, said there was no effective mechanism at universities to stop academic staff pressuring students for sexual relationships and any kind of disciplinary action was extremely rare. “There are very few penalties for academics who sexually harass their students; until penalties are established and made known, the problem will continue.”
The issue of NDAs is at the centre of a recent case of sexual harassment highlighted by Prof Sara Ahmed, who resigned from her post at Goldsmiths, University of London, earlier this summer in protest against what she described as the university’s failure to address sexual harassment. It had become, she said, a “normalised and generalised” part of the academic culture.
Speaking for the first time since her resignation, Ahmed, former director of the centre for feminist research at Goldsmiths, said there had been a number of complaints by female students which resulted in some staff leaving. However, because of the use of confidentiality agreements no one was told why or how they came to leave.
“Those staff are then free to represent their departures however they wish,” Ahmed said. “Confidentiality agreements are not necessarily used intentionally to silence students who have been harassed by staff or the staff who support them. But that is the effect. If no one speaks about the cases then no one speaks about what the cases revealed.”
A Goldsmiths spokesperson said sexual harassment was a very serious issue and was not tolerated at the university, adding: “It is sadly pervasive across society – and like many other organisations we have not been immune from the issue.
“We have confirmed that there has been inappropriate behaviour at the university in the past. Any allegations of sexual harassment are thoroughly investigated with action taken against those found responsible.”
The Guardian has been given the names of a number of men who were allegedly the subject of inquiries at Goldsmiths between 2013 and 2014 following complaints from students about harassment and sexual misconduct. Settlements were reached and some staff left the university, but much of the detail cannot be reported because parties involved signed a confidentiality clause.
In recent weeks, however, a group of mainly postgraduate students from Goldsmiths have launched a campaign to try to flush out the truth about what happened at the university to prompt Ahmed’s resignation.
“We feel hugely resentful that she is no longer teaching at Goldsmiths and are frustrated at the lack of information around precisely what she is protesting against,” a spokesperson for the group told the Guardian.
The students want to know if any of the members of staff at the centre of the allegations are still at Goldsmiths and, if they have left, whether other institutions are aware of the claims against them.
“It is not only to the detriment of Goldsmiths students and staff, but to other students and staff all around the world that severe cases of sexual harassment over several years have been buried,” the spokesperson said.
It has also emerged that a number of books in the university library have been defaced, with handwritten allegations of sexual harassment against the author – a former Goldsmiths academic – scrawled across the title page. The university has since removed the books from the library shelves.
According to sources at Goldsmiths inquiries focused on one department, where there were allegations of sexual harassment, sexual misconduct and bullying. One source described the culture in the department at that time as “macho, sexist and harassing”; any women who objected or did not participate were perceived as “uptight or disloyal”.
Goldsmiths refused to talk about specific cases and would not comment on the use of non-disclosure agreements, though in a previous statement Jane Powell, deputy warden, said: “We actively encourage people to report incidents but often there is a reluctance to speak up. That’s why we deal with these matters confidentially.”
A spokesperson said the university was looking at how it might be able to share information about previous complaints with students “to provide reassurance that we have taken robust and fair action in the past, and to think collectively about how we can do better in the future”.
A new lobby group and consultancy, the 1752 group, has been set up by four former and current PhD students at Goldsmiths to advise universities and deliver training around the issue of staff-to-student sexual harassment and exploitation.
Group spokesperson Dr Tiffany Pagesaid: “Many institutions have inadequate policies and complaints procedures in this area, so students who experience sexual harassment from their supervisors or tutors tend to avoid making official complaints and therefore are at risk of dropping out of their studies.
“If women do make complaints, we have evidence that these are often dealt with poorly by institutions, putting complainants at risk.”
The problem of sexual harassment in UK universities has come under the spotlight in recent years, but mainly with reference to student behaviour and so-called “lad culture” on campus rather than staff harassment of students.
In a survey by the National Union of Students in 2014, more than a third of women (37%) said they had faced unwelcome sexual advances, but the issue of sexual harassment of students by academic staff has remained under the radar.
A UUK taskforce has been set up to collect evidence on violence and harassment against women at universities, which is expected to report to government in October. “The university sector has been clear that there is no place for violence and sexual harassment on a university campus, nor anywhere else,” a UUK spokesperson said.
“Universities across the UK already have a range of initiatives and policies in place to address these issues, including policies on student-staff relationships. The aim of the taskforce will be to identify best practice across a range of areas and share this with all universities.”
Alison Phipps, who is involved in projects which challenge institutional sexism in several universities, said NDAs were dangerous because they could allow serial offenders to continue to target students.
“Non-disclosure agreements are about protecting the institution and particular individuals. That’s so dangerous because if that person is serially sexually harassing students that is a public interest issue. We need to know if there are people who are serial sexual harassers in our universities.”
Fellow academic Ruth Lewis called for more information on how often universities are using NDAs to settle cases. “They don’t help address cultures which condone such behaviour, they don’t help other victims know that they are not alone, they don’t help protect potential victims.
“Gender-based violence is an urgent, worrying problem in our universities; we need to know more about it to try to end it and universities need to improve their responses to it,” she said.
Case study: ‘There was inappropriate stuff going on’
Within weeks of starting to study for her PhD at Goldsmiths University, Beth (not her real name) was struck by the informal culture within her department. There were evenings out drinking in the pub, parties and lots of extracurricular socialising between senior academics and their students.
She was warned that her supervisor was flirtatious and had previously had relationships with students, so she tried hard to build a professional working relationship with him. As time went on however, she found herself caught between the need to maintain a professional student-staff relationship and her fear that she would be frozen out if she didn’t play along with the prevailing culture.
“In the first year I tried really hard to create a professional relationship. I thought I had, but on reflection there was inappropriate stuff going on.” Then in her second year, she became one of the favourites. “That meant I got more privileges, more opportunities thrown my way – I felt like I could become one of the in-crowd.”
It began to feel inappropriate, so in her third year she pulled back. “I stopped getting any support. I felt like a 13-year-old again. He was never an outright bully. He would never bark at you – but he would roll his eyes and he wouldn’t invite you to something. If you showed up, he wouldn’t engage with you, even though you were his supervisee.”
Her original complaint to the university was about inadequate supervision for her PhD, but she began to feel increasingly uncomfortable about other factors in the professional relationship, which then formed part of a later complaint – the way her supervisor stared at her chest while talking to her, the way he would touch her waist.
She was unhappy about the wider culture – going out with staff in the evenings and getting drunk. “He’d get closer to you and whisper in your ear: ‘You’re great.’
“I spent my first two years negotiating around that. Then I started to kind of withdraw – choosing not to go to more and more events, not going out with them, not being part of the party – then all of a sudden you’re not getting any supervision.
“It took me a very long time to make a complaint because I felt like I owed him something. He has this very large network – you felt if you made a complaint you would lose everything. Your entire future depends on having a really good recommendation from your supervisor. To sever those ties puts you in a really precarious position.”
The Goldsmiths spokesperson pointed out that the allegations centred on past events at the university and that since then the complaints procedure had been overhauled in consultation with students to make it easier for people to come forward.
“The organisation has been refreshed and renewed to ensure strong professionalism and focus on student wellbeing and to build on our reputation for offering a transformative learning experience,” the spokesperson said. “Goldsmiths offers a progressive and inclusive culture which draws students and staff from across the world.”
