As many of you will have seen today (28 May 2019), BBC Three aired a documentary about the University of Warwick and the recent group chat incident. The programme covered a number of sensitive and complex areas and raised questions about how the University handled it.

First and foremost, we want to apologise for any part we played in causing distress to members of our community. Sexual misconduct or harassment of any kind is completely unacceptable and we are committed to ensuring the safety and wellbeing of the Warwick community. We understand that many of you might have found some of the content upsetting and we are therefore offering enhanced wellbeing services for all students and staff on any issue related to the documentary or sexual misconduct more widely. If you would like to raise an incident or seek support, please do not hesitate to reach out to our Wellbeing Support Services (https://warwick.ac.uk/services/supportservices or by phone 024 7657 5570) or the Independent Sexual Violence Advisor, provided by Coventry Rape and Sexual Abuse Centre.

Secondly, we accept that our processes need to adapt to ensure they support our community better, which is why we have convened an independent review into our disciplinary structure as well as a separate review into our community values. We will ensure that updates from the reviews are clearly communicated with our community and any shortcomings identified during this process are comprehensively addressed. This will allow us to improve as an organisation and ensure we are putting in place changes which minimise the chances of these mistakes being repeated.

We will comment further once we have the outcome of the reviews which will allow us to understand and put in place what we need to change so that we can improve the University and better demonstrate our complete commitment to the safety and wellbeing of our community.

If you have any further questions regarding the documentary, please contact us at externalaffairs@warwick.ac.uk.

Best wishes, Professor Stuart Croft, Vice-Chancellor

28 May 2019