Community guidelines for protest at University of Exeter
At the University of Exeter, we actively promote free discussion and interrogation of challenging and sometimes controversial ideas. We promote a culture of debate within the law, built on the principle of tolerance of different views and beliefs.
The right to protest in England and Wales is protected under the European Convention of Human Rights. It is important to note that this legal right to protest only applies to peaceful demonstrations and does not extend to any acts of violence or damage caused during a protest. The right to protest is conditional and can be limited in certain circumstances.
We strongly believe that all students and colleagues deserve to feel safe and belong at our university. This guidance has been developed to support both protestors and other students and colleagues to be able to legally express their rights while also respecting everyone in our university community.
If you are organising a protest, attending a protest, or are just curious, please read this guidance in full so you are aware of how to hold a safe and legal protest.
Download: Community guidelines on protest
The first thing you should do when you are organising a protest is to contact Students’ Guild or the Students’ Union in Cornwall with details of your planned protest.
By doing this you can receive assistance with risk assessing and planning the protest.
If you are organising a protest that is not led by not a student society of the Guild/SU (but some other University affiliated group), please use the contacts on this circulation list: Event risk assessment
To enable us to best support you please get in touch with us at least 5 working days before the scheduled protest date, or earlier so we can provide you with as much support as possible.
When you contact us, please ensure you include:
- Proposed dates & times
- Suggested location (and whether static or moving)
- Estimated number of attendees
Failure to follow the guidelines above which are designed to enable lawful, safe, and peaceful protest, may constitute misconduct under the Disciplinary Procedure for students or Disciplinary or Grievance procedures for staff.
The University supports students’ and colleagues’ right to Freedom of Speech and will not seek to prevent peaceful Protests. However, if a protest that breached the University’s guidance/policy occurred, an investigation would be opened.
This would consider whether breaches of the University’s rules and regulations had occurred, indicative offences being those that impact the safe or normal operations of the University, damage to property, and/or distress or harm had been caused or had the potential to be caused.
Referrals would likely come via Estate Patrol or Safety and Support in Cornwall through incident reporting, CCTV and/or BWC footage; and/or complaints received from community members.
Initial consideration of action would begin with a case conference to consider the case, and whether any criminal action was in train; referral into an investigation (to start immediately where no police action was in train or paused while such action took place); and outcomes consistent with the nature of the incident. This could include minor outcomes, where relevant, such as imposing a contract to comply with risk assessment protocol requirements in future, or referral to a Disciplinary Board where relevant and appropriate.
Whilst this may be acceptable to some within the protest group, it may not be to others so please do take this into consideration before taking and sharing any images and videos. Please note that the University campuses are private property, and there is no public right to record on our campuses. Where unauthorised individuals may be filming, they will be asked to stop.
Whilst it is legal to film in a public space, sharing this footage online without consent, can be a crime under the new Online Harms Act. If you experience this, we will strongly recommend reporting this to the Police as they can then support with investigation and action.
Additionally, anyone who records someone becomes responsible for how that data is then processed. The Information Commissioner’s Office provides advice and guidance in this space when personal data issues arise between individuals.
Please note that unless specific consent is given, filming and disseminating videos of university colleagues in their place of work is unacceptable.
When you are working or representing the University, please do be mindful of our shared responsibility to be neutral and put courtesy and consideration of colleagues, students, and service users first.
Colleagues are expected to fulfil their allocated/timetabled duties and responsibilities and staff participation in protests must be outside working hours/in their own time. For more information, please refer to your employment conditions.