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<p>The government takes all forms of hate crime extremely seriously. There is no place
in our society - including within higher education – for hatred or for any form of
harassment, discrimination or racism.</p><p> </p><p>The government is working closely
with Universities UK (UUK) and the Office for Students (OfS) to support work to address
racism and other forms of harassment in higher education, including the implementation
of UUK’s Taskforce recommendations. The government has also tasked the OfS to support
this work, and over £2 million has been invested in projects tackling hatred and harassment.</p><p>
</p><p>The department regularly meets stakeholders and representative bodies about
student experience issues including racism, hate crime and harassment. Officials hold
quarterly meetings with the OfS and UUK to discuss how to make progress on harassment
and hate crime, including racism within the sector. In addition, I have recently held
meetings with the Union of Jewish Students and Jewish student representatives about
antisemitism on campus.</p><p> </p><p>The government expects providers to keep records
of incidents disclosed to them and to act swiftly to investigate and address them.
It is important to recognise that under-reporting is common. Higher education providers
should look at how they can continue to break down barriers to reporting, in spite
of the potential for it to lead to spikes in disclosures, and to make sure that students
and staff feel safe and able to disclose racist incidents.</p><p> </p><p>Evaluation
to date has shown that progress has been made but that there is still more to do.
On 7 January 2019; I wrote to the Equality and Human Rights Commission to welcome
their Inquiry into Racial Harassment in Higher Education Institutions. I look forward
to the new evidence that this inquiry will bring and will review its findings carefully.</p><p>
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