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LSBU awarded £43K HEFCE grant to enhance student safety measures
A grant of £43K has been awarded to London South Bank University by the Higher Education Funding Council to enhance student safety measuresA grant of £43K has been awarded (14 March) to London South Bank University (LSBU) by the Higher Education Funding Council (HEFCE) to enhance the existing package of safe-guarding measures the University offers to staff and students to provide protection from sexual harassment, violence and hate crime.
LSBU’s grant is part of an overall fund of £2.45million being distributed by HEFCE’s catalyst fund to over 60 projects in UK universities and colleges. LSBU is one of 64 institutions nationwide to receive funding and one of seven within London.
The funding is being awarded to UK universities and colleges in response to ‘Changing the Culture’ - a recent report produced by the Universities UK Harassment Task Force, which explored the nature and scale of the problem in higher education and highlighted the need for institutions to respond more effectively.
Each of the projects awarded funding today have been developed with students, who have pivotal roles in their delivery. They cover a wide range of activity, including training and awareness raising, digital innovation and new approaches to prevention and reporting.
Professor Shan Wareing, LSBU’s representative for student experience said: “We recognise that more can always be done to create an environment and campus culture that ensures the safety of students. At LSBU we are constantly engaged in making advances and improvements in our approach to improving student wellbeing.
“One of the ways in which we are currently looking to become more tactical is by raising awareness within the student body of the vital importance of ‘bystander interventions’ – where a witness intervenes to put a stop to unacceptable, threatening behaviour.
“At LSBU we are very keen to stress how such interventions can help to challenge and even prevent unacceptable behaviour – be it sexual harassment, homophobic or racist threats - and render it socially unacceptable.
“Our HEFCE funding bid also stressed that we will be working in partnership with the Students’ Union and local community-based, voluntary organisations to create awareness among our student body of the impact of bystander interventions.”
Learn more about HEFCE's catalyst fund.