Following an update at Council meeting on 9 October 2019, we have published our first progress report highlighting measures taken to improve the handling of student disciplinary and appeals processes. This follows recommendations from the independent review published in July, led by Dr Sharon Persaud, which we committed to addressing in full.

Key areas of progress made include:

• The creation of a new policy and process focused on sexual misconduct developed in collaboration with key stakeholders including the Students’ Union and Coventry Rape and Sexual Abuse Centre (CRASAC)
• An online reporting tool, Report + Support has been launched for students to disclose sexual misconduct. The online system can also be used to make anonymous disclosures
• Only external Investigating Officers with specialist skills will investigate sexual misconduct cases
• All those involved in student sexual misconduct cases have received face to face training
• An interim Director to support the student discipline and resolution team and Permanent Secretariat in post
• Two Student Liaison Officers are now in role, and will act as a single point of contact when communicating with both reporting and responding parties from initial disclosure through to resolution.

In addition to the above, we have set out our guiding principles, and published a series of web pages that pull these initiatives together.

A working group, led by Registrar Rachel Sandby-Thomas, has put the implementation plan into action, and will now continue onto phase two of the programme.