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NTU wins the ‘Outstanding Support for Students’ at Times Higher Education Awards 2020

Nottingham Trent University (NTU) won the award for Outstanding Support for Students at the Times Higher Education Awards 2020 in recognition of the University’s work on sexual violence prevention and response.

Outstanding support for students award
Outstanding support for students award
Times Higher Education Awards 2020

The awards entry window opened just as the COVID-19 lockdown commenced and entries focused on activity during the 2018-19 academic year.

At a time of much-needed reappraisal of women’s and ethnic minorities’ rights, NTU sought to stand in solidarity with such movements by raising the agenda of harassment, hate crime and violence against women across its campuses and beyond.
With the goal of encouraging reporting and collaborative action, the University’s respect and consent working group reviewed data around such issues. They then helped create a specialist team which included new posts such as a sexual violence project officer, a hate crime project officer and a network of sexual violence liaison officers.

In 2018-19 the University rolled-out a programme that delivered a zero-tolerance sexual violence policy. A film on that theme was shared in classes and on social media, workshops on consent and bystander intervention were held, a sexual violence awareness week organised and a student signposting guide produced.

More than 1,100 staff and students have taken part in training, while the increased profile and the open-door policy engendered by the programme has resulted in a large increase in disclosures of instances of harassment, hate crime and violence against women – from 20 in 2015-16 to 141 in 2018-19, with all those who make such reports now receiving appropriate and timely support.

The judges commented: “Support for students in an increasingly complex higher education environment has never been more important, and the work at NTU in responding to and preventing sexual violence stood out because of its close integration with the students’ union, the breadth of interventions developed and the scale of the programme, reaching thousands of students and staff across the university.”

Sara Baldwin, Head of Student Support Services at NTU, said: “This project dealt openly with the subject of sexual violence, encouraging victims to come forward with both historic and recent cases to seek support. It is their journeys which inspire us to continue to strive for excellence in this area.

“We would like to thank all the students, staff and services that have worked with us to develop our response and prevention work, in particular our Students’ Union and the local partner agencies involved in the Nottingham Consent Coalition. It is these partnerships which have enabled us to develop a truly great, sustainable service to support students and the wider Nottinghamshire community.”

Published on 3 March 2021
  • Category: Alumni