Institution
University of Bath
Author
- Dr Teslim Bukoye - Race and Equality Charter Lead
- Melissa Oram and Aiste Zubiniene - Culture & Inclusion Team ·
- Lizzie Tilley and Daniel Holley - Student Support and Safeguarding Team
Overview
As part of University of Bath student induction, all first-year students complete two e-modules to promote a safe, inclusive community: Active Respect (developed in-house) and a specialist sexual consent module. This case study explains how Bath designed and delivered Active Respect, strengthening shared expectations, respectful behaviours and an equitable student experience.
About the organisation
The University of Bath received its Royal Charter in 1966 and is now established as a top 10 UK university with a reputation for research and teaching excellence. The University is primarily based on the Claverton Down campus in the city of Bath, in Somerset. We have a student population of 21,340, with 27% coming from outside the UK, representing 152 nationalities.
In 2024, the University, led by Race Equality Charter Lead Dr Teslim Bukoye, began its application for the Race Equality Charter Bronze Award and successfully received the award from Advance HE in September 2025.
Purpose of the initiative
The two e-modules that students are required to complete form part of the University’s #NeverOK campaign which aims to tackle harassment, bullying, sexual misconduct and discrimination.
The purpose of the Active Respect e-module is to ensure that all students joining the University of Bath:
- Understand their rights and their responsibilities in terms of what behaviours are considered not acceptable within our community
- Know how to seek support and report incidences of harassment, bullying, sexual misconduct and discrimination
- Have the tools and knowledge they need to be an active bystander
Description of the initiative
We wrote and created Active Respect “in-house” using an e-learning authoring platform and hosting it on our virtual learning environment
Active Respect has three main components:
1. Respect in our community: This explains the standards of behaviour expected within our community. It highlights the importance of fostering belonging and how everyone has a responsibility to contribute to this, including actions and tools to help students consider their own biases, and microaffirmations. It also defines harassment, bullying, discrimination and sexual misconduct which are illustrated with specific actions, including examples of racial harassment and discrimination.
2. Accessing support: Here students learn about the University’s support services, including our Support and Report service. This section focuses on removing barriers to accessing support for, and reporting, incidences of harmful behaviour by improving understanding and building trust in the processes and how they are run.
3. Being an active bystander: This section teaches students how to intervene, when safe to do so, should they witness behaviour that they don’t think is right. Interactive scenarios allow them to explore how they might respond in different situations specific to student life.
There are two versions of Active Respect, one for taught students, and one specifically for postgraduate researchers. There is also a staff version of the e-module, which all new staff are required to complete.
The e-module is sent to students 1-2 weeks before they arrive at Bath. Student completion rates are then monitored and followed up with throughout Semester 1.
Rationale
The University of Bath is conscious of the experiences of university students, as well as the gap in specific racial diversities both on campus and in the wider city regions. This has triggered the awareness of the institution to ensure that racial literacy is taught and made available to our members, to support and embrace the representation of diverse students and staff we have here. It is also to maintain and sustain the safe environment we are proud of, and to continue working to provide this to all our members, regardless of their heritage and identity.
Results
Student completion rates are increasing rapidly since the module’s original launch in 2022. Of the 2024 student intake, 67.5% of taught students and 75% of research students completed the respective Active Respect e-modules. Module completion is still ongoing at the time of writing, but we currently anticipate exceeding these figures slightly for the 2025 intake.
We measure the impact of the e-module through pre- and post-module surveys which include questions designed to assess changes in knowledge and attitudes, as well as bystander efficacy questions. Developing the effectiveness of our evaluation is an ongoing process but initial indications are positive.
For example, students are asked how confident they feel that the University would take reports of harassment seriously. In the 2024 cohort pre-survey, 53% of taught students said they were “very confident” (highest rating on a 5-point scale). In the post-module survey this rose to 79%.
Students are also asked how likely they are to carry out specific bystander actions in 7 specific scenarios based on the Bystander Efficacy Scale (Banyard et al., 2005). One scenario is: “In a group, a friend makes a joke that involves an offensive racial stereotype. I make a point of not laughing and express that I don’t think the joke is funny”. In the pre-module survey 58.7% of taught students said it was “very likely” they would take the action described. In the post-module survey this rose to 73.6% of taught students.
Key barriers and facilitators
We feel a key facilitator of the e-module's positive reception for students and impact scores has been the choice to create the e-modules in-house. This allows us to be much more responsive to student feedback, sector and regulatory changes. There is also a corresponding staff version of the Active Respect e-module, which all staff members are also required to complete when they join the University.
Student feedback indicates the personalised content is well-received. This is most noted in the feedback for the sexual consent e-module that we purchase from an external provider. While the student feedback on this module is overall very positive, one of the most common themes in the qualitative feedback was that it did not feel specific to Bath.
Two key facilitators of our completion rates are senior buy-in and dedicated resource for monitoring completion rates. The initial correspondence that explains the e-module and asks student to complete it comes from our Pro Vice-Chancellor for Student Experience. Then, after the initial welcome period we follow up with first year students who have not yet completed the module directly with individualised emails.
The main barrier is resourcing. Developing, maintaining, and evaluating in-house modules, alongside personalised follow-up, requires sustained staff time and expertise. A further limitation is timing: induction is a period of information overload, which may reduce long-term retention and impact unless the learning is reinforced through later touchpoints in the student experience.
The future?
We are considering how else we can best tailor the content of the e-module to key groups within our student body, for example, students who are studying with us oversees and entirely remotely.
We also aim to create “micro-learns” as optional added content to the core modules, which will give us and the participant the opportunity to continue delving into subjects that interest them, or they wish to understand more.
Advice for other members
Whatever your institution’s demographic profile, investing in racial and gender literacy improves trust, cohesion, and everyday decision making. Start by creating spaces for honest dialogue, and model humility about what you do not yet know. Design learning that leads with aspirational behaviours, then explains harms and boundaries, so colleagues feel equipped rather than policed. Frame guidance around what to do, and why. Keep content local and responsive to feedback and casework, and refresh it as guidance evolves. Finally, plan for completion: secure senior sponsorship, communicate expectations clearly, track participation, and follow up with timely, personalised reminders supported by adequate resourcing.
Web links
- Harassment is Never OK
- Race Equality Charter
- @uniofbath on Instagram
Advance HE shares a range of practice and approaches to charters awards. Case studies/example applications illustrate one approach to race/gender equality work but there are a variety of successful approaches and we recommend charter members consider their local evidence-base and context when deciding how to advance equality in their setting.