Time to press the panic button

Unacceptable student conduct towards staff will not get better on its own, argues Deborah Lee

The Times Higher last week revealed that higher education institutions have recorded more than 1,000 incidents of student aggression towards staff in the past five years. I was not surprised. I have completed a study of unacceptable student conduct that paints a similar picture, and I too believe it is the tip of an iceberg.

While more research is clearly needed, there is sufficient evidence to initiate a campaign, one that could draw on the experience of the National Health Service.

The first stage is for institutions to explore unacceptable student conduct towards staff, via confidential surveys conducted by external consultants.

This point is particularly important for the 37 institutions where there have been no incidents of student aggression recorded in the past five years. Even at institutions where more realistic statistics are available, more incidents will have occurred than have been reported.

These data can contribute to risk assessment of the environment and indicate ways in which safety may be promoted. This is what happens in the NHS. One of my interviewees was stalked by a student who waited for her while she taught an evening class in an isolated classroom. The accommodation would probably have been reconsidered if she had been an NHS employee.

Another of my interviewees was attacked by a student who had failed an exam. If there had been a panic button, as is common in the NHS, she would have been able to raise the alarm.

Staff often do not know what to do when confronted by aggressive students.

Like NHS workers, they must learn how to defuse tension, and how to escape a physical attack. More important, staff need to know that problems are not always and inevitably their own fault. Training should not be just for staff; students must be informed that aggression towards staff will not be tolerated.

Policies and reporting procedures need to be addressed. Institutions should issue a separate policy in this area to highlight what is a largely unacknowledged problem. The policy needs to stress that concerns can be raised regarding a range of incidents, not just physical violence.

Reporting procedures must be more straightforward and forms should be easily accessible via university websites. Staff need to be aware of the ways in which students may be disciplined once concerns have been investigated. These policies and procedures should be publicised: paralleling the NHS campaign, posters can raise awareness with staff, students and wider society that a problem has been recognised and that action is being taken.

Effective university management is critical. Excellent practice should be shared. My research, though, revealed managers blaming staff rather than disciplining students. This reflects a tendency for financial considerations to matter more than staff welfare.

Cultural change is required, and caring for staff must have a higher profile. This will not be straightforward, but perhaps The Times Higher could request yearly data from higher education institutions on unacceptable student conduct and responses that have been made.

The persistence of problems in the NHS shows that change is not effected easily. But if next year more incidents of unacceptable student conduct in higher education are reported, and the sanctions applied seem appropriate, perhaps we can be optimistic that cultural change is taking place.

Deborah Lee is a senior lecturer in sociology at Nottingham Trent University. Her book Students Behaving Badly will be published next year.