What is bullying?
Bullying is offensive, intimidating, malicious or insulting behaviour involving the misuse of power, position or knowledge. Bullying is intentional and can make a person feel humiliated, threatened, undermined and vulnerable. Victims may not always recognise what is happening and so may feel trapped, isolated or powerless.
Bullying tends to happen persistently, often without witnesses, over time. It can involve one individual against another or involve groups of people. Bullying can take the form of physical, verbal, and non-verbal conduct and so can include social media communications, telephone communications, filming or taking pictures of people and/or using these without their knowledge or consent.
This is not an exhaustive list, but examples of bullying may include:
- being shouted at, being sarcastic towards, ridiculing or demeaning others
- deliberately excluding or ignoring an individual
- physical or psychological threats
- unfair or excessive supervision or monitoring
- unfair blaming for mistakes or unwarranted fault finding
- singling out or treating an individual unfairly.
What is harassment?
Harassment is unwanted behaviour which violates a person’s dignity, or creates an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating or offensive environment.
Harassment is often persistent, although a single incident may be serious enough to constitute it. Harassment can be deliberate or unintentional, however the effect on the victim is the main factor to be considered in claims of harassment, not the intention behind it.
Harassment can take the form of physical, verbal and non-verbal conduct and so can include social media communications, telephone communications, filming or taking pictures of people and/or using these without their knowledge or consent.
This is not an exhaustive list, but examples of harassment may include:
- Unwanted physical conduct or ‘horseplay’ including touching pinching, pushing, grabbing, brushing past someone, invading their personal space and more serious forms of physical or sexual assault.
- Acts of stalking, such as following a person, persistent and unwanted attention or attempts at communication, sending unwanted gifts, attending their home uninvited, waiting for them or loitering, monitoring or spying on them.
- Offensive or intimidating comments or gestures, or insensitive jokes or pranks.
- Mocking, mimicking, or belittling a person’s disability.
- Racist, sexist, homophobic or ageist jokes, or derogatory or stereotypical remarks about an ethnic or religious group or sex.
- Outing or threatening to out someone as gay, lesbian, bisexual or trans.
- Ignoring or shunning someone, for example, by deliberately excluding them from a conversation or a social activity.
If you want to be contacted by an advisor, please report through our 'Report with contact details' route.
Alternatively, you can make an anonymous disclosure which still helps the University to understand what is happening in our community and review preventative and support measures.