[Preliminary report] Prejudice and hate on university campuses: repairing harms through student-led restorative dialogue

This preliminary report is part of a project funded by the HEFCE Student Safeguarding Catalyst Fund, which provided funding grants to establish projects to tackle hate crimes in universities. As part of this grant, the Universities of Sussex and Brighton are in the process of establishing a new restorative programme (called Restore Respect) that aims to provide support to students who have experienced prejudice and hate on campus. The programme is student-led, meaning that the programme itself is informed by the needs and experiences of students, and will involve students as central players in the resolution of their case. This report draws on data collated from focus groups and interviews. It highlights examples of students’ experiences of prejudice and hate across the two universities, and outlines the barriers, as perceived by participants, to reporting incidents to each university. It concludes by exploring what students want from a restorative programme that aims to use dialogical methods to address the invidious causes and impacts of identity-based prejudice at university, and based on these we outline the next steps for Restore Respect.