A qualitative analysis of English universities’ policies on addressing students’ experiences of hate crime and incidents

The scale, nature and impact of students’ experiences of hate crime and incidents have been comprehensively documented over the last decade. There is, however, limited research on how universities are responding to such non-academic misconducts. Therefore, through an in-depth qualitative analysis of policies on addressing students’ experiences of non-academic misconducts at 18 English universities, this paper aims to examine current universities’ approaches to students’ experiences of hate crime and incidents. Through a conventional content analysis of the policy structure, definitions and example of behaviours, findings demonstrate the existence of a hierarchy of non-academic misconducts, limited recognition for hate incidents and a heavy dependence on legislative provisions in existing policies. Guided by theoretical propositions of critical victimology, a reflexive thematic analysis of interviews with 36 members of staff from the professional services and students’ union officers at 29 English universities illuminates how power dynamics between policy actors influenced the ways in which universities’ policies were developed. Based on the new findings, this paper concludes with recommendations to support the future development of universities’ policies for addressing students’ experiences of hate crime and incidents.