Any form of sexual misconduct, assault or harassment is never acceptable.
If you think you have been the target of sexual misconduct, assault or harassment, it may be hard to know what to do or how to feel. What happened was not your fault. What you do next is your choice.
Such forms of unacceptable behaviour are contrary to the Equality Act 2010 and the University Dignity at Cranfield Policy.
Think
- Are you in immediate danger? If you are in immediate danger or seriously injured, you can contact the emergency services on 999 (or 112 from a mobile phone).
- Find a safe space. If an incident has just happened try and find somewhere you feel safe.
- What are sexual misconduct and assault? It might be useful to think about what is meant by sexual misconduct and how this is described - please refer to our page on 'What is sexual misconduct and assault'.
Report
- Report and Support. Students and staff can report an incident using the University’s Report and Support system. You can choose to do this anonymously or you can provide your contact details, so that you can be contacted by an advisor who will be able to talk through the options and support available to you, in confidence.
- University procedure. If you choose to make a formal complaint to the University about a student or member of staff there are procedures which set out the steps you'll need to follow. For staff these are linked on our intranet pages.
- Take care of yourself. It’s important that you take care of yourself. If you have experienced something distressing or if something is troubling you, the University's Student Wellbeing and Disability Support team offer confidential help to students and People and Culture teams to staff.
- In addition to the above, there are other forms of support available to you at Cranfield. This includes our mental health first aiders who you can reach out to for a confidential chat. They are listed on our intranet page.
Other avenues of support are listed here:
Get support - external sources
If you think you have experienced an incident of sexual misconduct and violence, there is a variety of support options available to students and staff. Regardless of whether you would like to report an incident of sexual misconduct and violence, we highly recommend contacting a Sexual Assault Referral Centre (SARC) where you can access a range of confidential support including advice, counselling, sexual health screening referrals, a forensic medical examination and/or the support of an Independent Sexual Violence Advisor (ISVA).
If you think you have experienced an incident of sexual misconduct and violence, there is a variety of support options available to students and staff. Regardless of whether you would like to report an incident of sexual misconduct and violence, we highly recommend contacting a Sexual Assault Referral Centre (SARC) where you can access a range of confidential support including advice, counselling, sexual health screening referrals, a forensic medical examination and/or the support of an Independent Sexual Violence Advisor (ISVA).
- Sexual Assault Referral Centre (SARC) - find a local centre.
- Rape Crisis England and Wales - find a link to a local Rape Crisis organisation in your area here
- Rape Crisis Scotland - find the nearest Centre here
- Rape Crisis Northern Ireland
- Rape Crisis Ireland
- Survivors Trust (covers UK and Ireland)
- The National Stalking Helpline for information and advice.
- Revenge Porn Helpline practical help with removing online content and advice about reporting revenge porn.
- Sextortion guidance on reporting to the police when someone is threatening to publish sexual information, photos or videos of someone. This may be to extort money or to force the victim to do something against their will.
Take care of yourself. It’s important that you take care of yourself. If you’ve heard something distressing or if something is troubling you, the University's Student Wellbeing and Disability Support and People and Culture teams offer confidential help to students and staff.