By Sammie Jones-
Lawyers have condemned an earlier decision by Cambridge University to not investigate some students’ complaints of sexual misconduct, including rape, branding it unlawful.
Their objections follow a ruling this summer that sexual misconduct should no longer be covered by the university’s general disciplinary regulations for students.
Two female students have been informed that their complaints of sexual assault and rape will not be taken forward because of the decision, according to the Cambridge student newspaper Varsity.
One of the chairs of Cambridge’s disciplinary committee ruled in June that sexual misconduct should not fall under the definition of harassment set out in the general regulations for discipline. The ruling has left two female students in the cold, after complaining of sexual assault and rape. These complaints are usually for the police, but even when.
One of the complainants affected said she was told her allegations could not be investigated because of the absence of other regulation in the general disciplinary code that deals with sexual misconduct.
The university is introducing a procedure on 1 October that will define sexual misconduct as a breach of the rules of behaviour for students. But this system is prospective, meaning that complaints about sexual misconduct that occurred before that date – even if reported later – will be investigated under the old procedures.
Georgina Calvert-Lee, senior counsel at McAllister Olivarius, a law firm that has represented many victims of sexual misconduct at UK universities, said the decision could be taken to judicial review on the grounds it was “unlawful, irrational and proceedurally improper”.
She said: “It effectively deprives students of any internal recourse for sexual assault, which would seem to be in breach of at least the university’s public sector equality duty, and so unlawful. I do not see how a university can comply with this duty, if it refuses to consider any sexual misconduct complaints if based on acts occurring before 1 October 2019.”
Calvert-Lee added that the decision also seemed contrary to the rules of natural justice and proceedurally unfair. She said: “The university has progressed sexual misconduct complaints under its regulations relating to harassment in the recent past. Why should some students be denied access to a complaints process, while others were given access to it?”
The decision also appears to contradict the university’s procedure on student harassment and sexual misconduct, revised last year, which states that the definition of harassment in the general regulations “covers acts of sexual misconduct”.
Kate Litman, the women’s officer at Cambridge students union, said the discipline committee’s ruling was appalling. She added: “This means that, until the new reformed disciplinary procedure comes into place on 1 October, the university cannot take forward complaints of sexual misconduct. In the interim months the university is seriously failing students who need to access the procedure.”