6. Under the Student Code of Conduct you must

i. Behave in a responsible manner.
ii. Act with honesty and integrity.
iii. Treat others in a considerate and courteous way and with mutual respect including in your communications and use of social media.
iv. Respect the rights of others (including rights of free speech and academic freedom within the law).
v. Act as responsible members of the local community in which you live and behave as a considerate neighbour.
vi. Comply with University regulations, policies, procedures and codes of practice.
vii. Abide by the law.
viii. Adhere to University safeguarding guidelines during placements.

7. Examples of behaviour which breaches the Student Code of Conduct include (but are not limited to) the following:

• Physical misconduct – pushing and shoving, causing injury to others, assault, causing physical harm.

• Sexual misconduct – engaging in (or attempting to engage in) a sexual act without consent, sharing private sexual material without consent, touching, or kissing without consent, making unwanted remarks of a sexual nature.

• Abusive behaviour – threatening, abusive, disorderly, or unreasonable behaviour, verbal abuse, intimidation, acting in a hostile manner.

• Harassment – engaging in unwanted attention, stalking, and following, behaviour which causes fear or distress to others, bullying behaviour, comments and/or actions which intend to demean others (including postings, messages and comments on all forms of social media including within private groups). It is important to realise that behaviour may still be harassment even if that was not the intention.

• Property – causing damage to property, misuse of property (e.g. computers and laboratory equipment), defacement of property, unauthorised entry to property, theft. This mainly relates to University property or the property of students, employees or visitors to the University.

• Drugs and alcohol – unacceptable behaviour arising from the consumption of drugs or alcohol, supply, cultivation, or possession with intent to supply controlled substances.

• Health and Safety – actions/omissions that cause or could have caused a health and safety concern (e.g. smoking in non-designated areas, misuse of fire equipment, failure to evacuate during fire alarms), possession of an offensive weapon including imitation or replica products.

• Anti-social behaviour – behaviour that damages or has the potential to damage the University’s relationship or reputation in the local community, causing distress to others through anti-social behaviour (e.g. excessive or unacceptable levels of noise, failure to respect the rights of others including the rights to free speech and academic freedom within the law and the right to peaceful protest).

• Disruption – intention to interfere or cause disruption to the operation or activities of the University, behaviour that could cause damage to the reputation of the University, failure to disclose name or student id to an employee of the University when it is reasonable to require such information, interfering with a disciplinary investigation (e.g. by disposing of evidence, intimidation of witnesses, retaliation, making vexatious or malicious conduct allegations), failure to respond to reasonable requests or directions by University staff, downloading of unauthorised material using University IT equipment or IT account, recording of lectures, academic session or conversations without consent from the person involved, making available to others audio recordings or visual images from a teaching session without consent from the person involved.

• Dishonesty – acts, omissions or statements intended to deceive the University, impersonation of another student, requesting someone else to impersonate a student, deliberate falsification of records, providing fraudulent documents to the University, providing fraudulent University documentation to a third party.

• Initiation activities – initiation ceremonies or initiation-style activities are not permitted. This includes activities designed to degrade, demean, or humiliate participants irrespective of their willingness to participate, activities intended to lead participants to behave in a way that would bring the University into disrepute.

• Criminality – conduct which has resulted in a custodial or other sanction following police investigation.

8. There are various other University policies and regulations that apply to students, breaches of which may, where appropriate, be dealt with as breaches of the Student Code of Conduct. These regulations and policies include (but are not limited to):

• Regulations for the use of IT facilities and learning resources
• Health and Safety Policy
• Academic Conduct Regulation
• Student Anti-Harassment Policy
• Freedom of Speech Code of Practice (including the External Speaker Procedure)

9. There is a separate Student Fitness to Practise Regulation, which applies to courses that include or lead to a professional qualification or that confer practitioner status. Concerns about your professional suitability are normally dealt with under the Fitness to Practise Regulation, rather than under the Disciplinary Regulations. Where the alleged misconduct is dealt with under this Regulation and you are found to have breached the Student Code of Conduct, the outcome of the case will also be considered under the Fitness to Practise Regulation.

10. These Regulations do not deal with:

• academic misconduct – this is addressed in the Academic Conduct Regulation
• research misconduct – this is addressed in Procedures for Dealing with Research Misconduct conduct by staff towards students – complaints about staff can be made via the Student Complaints Procedure.

11. These procedures are intended to address misconduct rather than to resolve disputes between students. You must take personal responsibility for maintaining good relationships with your fellow students and housemates. It is not expected that you will raise minor disagreements and differences with others under this procedure. For advice regarding how to manage a difficult relationship issue, contact Hallam Union Student Advice Service.

12. This Regulation and procedure is not a criminal process and does not seek to establish whether a student has committed a criminal offence. Instead, it seeks to establish whether a student has committed misconduct by breaching the Student Code of Conduct. Where an allegation of misconduct is or may constitute a criminal offence that is being dealt with or may be dealt with by the police and criminal justice system, we may liaise with the police to ensure that University actions do not prejudice police and/or criminal justice system proceedings. Therefore, University proceedings may be suspended until police and/or legal proceedings have concluded.

13. Based on a risk assessment, we may suspend/temporarily exclude reported students against whom allegations are made on a precautionary basis, pending investigation under this procedure. This is not a determination of guilt; it is a way of managing risk until the facts are clear. This suspension may be from placement, from teaching, from the campus, or from all those activities. Wellbeing support will remain available to students who are under suspension.