Tackling Religion-based Hate Crime on the Multi-Faith Campus
Funder
Office for Students (OfS) Catalyst Initiative
Total value of project
£49,681
Project team
Professor Kristin Aune, Dr Sariya Cheruvallil-Contractor, Professor Paul Weller, Dr Lucy Peacock, Dr Jane Osmond
Partners
Advance HE and Church of England Education Office
Duration of project
01/04/2018 - 31/03/2020
Project overview
The project has three main aims:
- To better support students in understanding what religion-based hate crime is and encourage them to report and receive support;
- To strengthen the existing reporting and case management mechanism to ensure it addresses religion-based hate crime affecting students;
- To provide an exemplar for the HE sector via partnership with, and knowledge sharing through, national organisations working on HE equality policy (ECU) and with chaplains (the Church of England).
Project objectives
During the project the team:
- Worked together to investigate and address religion or belief harassment and hate. The working group consisted of team members from the Students’ Union, chaplaincy, student welfare services and academic researchers.
- Recruited a case manager to promote religion-based hate incident reporting.
- Developed and disseminated information about Coventry University’s new harassment and hate incidents reporting tool.
- Ran two surveys, to understand students’ attitudes to, awareness of, and reported experiences of religion or belief harassment and hate, and to evaluate the project.
- Initiated a successful promotional campaign aimed at raising awareness around religion or belief harassment and hate. Some aspects of the campaign were linked to the surveys and their findings.
- Shared findings, methods and knowledge gathered with the other OfS projects and other universities and chaplains, which led to development of skills for those working with students across the HE sector.
- Developed and published guidance for the HE sector on addressing religion or belief-related harassment and hate.