Bucks &amp; Oxon

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Tell me about some of the situations that parents of university students come to you for help with.



There’s a whole range of issues regarding both academic and non-academic matters. The former might be students who have been accused of plagiarism or collusion, which is often done unintentionally. These kinds of matters can have ‘fitness to practice’ implications too &#8211; it&#8217;s the regulatory framework that you are held up against in certain professions, usually affecting medical and law students in my experience. For example, in some cases of sexual or even academic misconduct, an incident could inhibit you to practice even if you’ve not qualified yet. Essentially, misconduct in your university years could ruin my career. It’s a rude awakening for many students.&nbsp;



And what about the non-academic issues?



Sexual misconduct cases are the most common for me &#8211; one of my cases has gone to the Court of Appeal. Ultimately it was about a student who was treated badly by the university in terms of communication about the allegation, opportunity to make their case and then exclusion from university. The university failed to give proper reasons for its decision making or to give the student a chance to have their say.



So the university can act as the law here?



Universities aren’t a court and yet they can make decisions based on their findings. People with poor training or no legal training make these decisions and it can lead to one or both of the affected parties receiving a gross injustice.&nbsp;



Doesn’t the student just want to leave because of the damage to their reputation?



Yes, in my experience students affected in this way are happy to go but of course the concern is whether this follows them to another university. 



How do you take on a university in these cases?



Often it’s a case of explaining the situation to the university in a better way than a panicked student. Sometimes I am just the person who steps in and deals with it rationally in a way the student isn’t able to with such high emotional stakes.



Perhaps an obvious question, but what do most sexual misconduct cases concern?



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Many of my cases have to do with varying understandings of consent. I’ve had cases where previous consent has led the person to believe it is an ongoing consent. Because alcohol may often be involved there’s immediately a negative inference to be made against the person who had been drinking. Or we’ve had kids where they’ve gone on a night out where they are black-out drunk, as is the other person involved, and it is difficult to establish the facts.&nbsp;



Has the university’s treatment of students in these cases changed over time?



Absolutely. The zero tolerance approach to sexual misconduct can lead very quickly to exclusion without engagement in the facts. Or take the example of matters regarding free speech and misuse of social media. Many students have become involved in debates online around the Gaza conflict and there has been a pattern of universities not knowing how to handle it. It’s about establishing where freedom of speech and hate speech meet. It wouldn’t be surprising that someone got excluded and then was deemed not fit to practice over an issue like this.&nbsp;



Going back to academic matters, AI must be rife in student work these days



AI and plagiarism are common areas of academic misconduct. We have kids who come to us who don’t realise that AI can’t be used in producing their work. They assert that they’ve been unable to find something in the course guidelines that indicates they couldn’t use it. It’s a new area and often the university hasn’t actually defined guidelines around its use. What students need to understand is that there doesn’t have to be a name for it &#8211; the issue is if they are gaining an unfair advantage against someone who didn’t use this tool.&nbsp;



So how do students avoid this pitfall?



It’s about referencing where their ideas have come from. It’s important to keep a note of all of your sources so they can be investigated if needs be. It’s usually a sloppy mistake if this doesn’t happen. We’ve assisted someone who put the wrong citation number on their paper and that is silly because the research was done. We had to explain this was a mistake because everything else was properly referenced. It felt heavy handed and was life shattering to the person.&nbsp;



So how did you help?



We communicated with the university and that approach was successful for the student. The allegation itself is distressing and that emotional side can really escalate the communication with the university and can impact how rational your response is. My role is to go through what academic misconduct is. Once we have all the information we can build a case for the student. Their actions should be considered in light of being a mistake versus an intentional choice.&nbsp;



Does it normally end up in legal wrangles?



University investigations are not inherently legal, however, legal principles will underpin how investigations should be handled, and this is often where students feel overwhelmed by the process.



A university&#8217;s role is not to administer justice; it is to provide an educational service. If there is a threat to its ability to do this, the goal is not necessarily to &#8216;get to the bottom&#8217; of an allegation, but rather weigh the risk of dismissing it with the potential harm doing so may cause to other students, and the university&#8217;s reputation.



Does it ever go to court?&nbsp;



Sometimes, but it will rarely go all the way to trial. This is because parties in a legal claim are expected to resolve matters fairly and, ideally, informally, if possible. Also, court costs are not easily recoverable and can cost upwards of £100,000. Even a party who &#8216;wins&#8217; is unlikely to get all of their costs back. 



How do you keep it out of the courts then?



I have often resolved matters early through simple correspondence with universities, setting out my client’s position and desired outcomes. It may be enough in some situations to ventilate a student&#8217;s concerns by setting it out in an open, informal manner. I find that the earlier I am involved, the more likely my clients are to resolve their disputes without having to go to court.



And what happens to the student&#8217;s university education in the meantime?



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Any disruption to a student’s education is largely dependent on the severity of the allegation they&#8217;re facing. If a student is facing an academic misconduct allegation, for example, it may be that they are allowed to continue attending classes until a finding is made by the university. For non-academic misconduct, universities will consider whether a student poses harm to others, which may mean they attend classes remotely, for example, until an outcome is communicated to them. In this kind of situation, I provide support by appealing university suspension measures when appropriate, and advocating for students so they retain access to lectures/tutorials in alternative ways, and ensure as minimal an impact on their studies as possible.



So they’ve messed up, but how do you stop one bad decision plaguing a young person for life?



I often remind my clients facing misconduct allegations to think about what they want their life to be like in 5, 10, or 15 years. My aim is to make sure that this vision remains possible for them. It&#8217;s important that students maintain a sense of themselves and their aspirations whilst undergoing these gruelling procedures because it provides important perspective. In the best-case scenario, my clients walk away from these disputes with the tools to reflect, learn from their mistakes, and move forward.



Any particularly unusual cases?



My most unusual cases involve academic areas of study that I&#8217;m unfamiliar with &#8211; I tend to learn a lot about STEM/medicine whenever I am preparing academic appeals, which teaches me quite a bit about an area I&#8217;d otherwise not be exposed to!



Victoria Denis is a solicitor in the <a href="https://www.ibblaw.co.uk/service/education-law" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">IBB Law Education</a> team. IBB has offices in Beaconsfield, Reading, Ascot and Uxbridge.

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