When a case is referred to a formal hearing of the disciplinary process, students will receive an invitation to the hearing.  Within this students should receive the details of the case, procedural information an signposting to support.  Sometimes, between a case being referred and the invitation being sent out, a bit of time could pass as there may not be any hearings scheduled, people's availability needs to align etc. 

To reduce anxiety and keep the student informed, it is good practice to confirm to a student that a referral has been made, particularly if it is anticipated that a hearing invitation (or Fast-Track decision) will be some time away.  This confirmation could be an email or a letter from the referring area or the team setting up the disciplinary panel.  The correspondence could:

• Advise that a referral has been received
• Give an indicative timeframe for when the case is expected to be heard
• Indicate the usual format of the hearing (i.e. online)
• Advise when the student might next hear about the case (e.g. at least 5 (for SDPs) / 10 (for UDPs) working days before the hearing)
• Suggest what the student can do in the meantime (e.g. prepare a response, arrange to speak to a supporter for the hearing, read policy information)
• Signpost to the Students’ Union, the Counselling and Mental Health Service and the Student Support webpage

Procedural requirements

For Summary Disciplinary Panels (SDPs) students should receive 5 working days notice of a hearing.  The day of the invitation would be taken as a working day (assuming it goes in working hours), there are then at least 4 full working days between the invitation and the hearing, and the hearing takes place on day 6.  So, if notification of a hearing went out on a Monday, then the hearing would take place the following Monday.  

For University Disciplinary Panels (UDPs) students should receive 10 working days notice of a hearing.

Disciplinary hearings take place across the year, including outside scheduled teaching and learning activity.  However, notice periods need to be extended where there are bank holidays or during University closure as these are not viewed as working days.   

The procedural notice periods are considered reasonable to allow students to seek support and prepare for the case.  The notice periods will only be reduced for hearings with the student's agreement.

Outside of hearings, such as investigations or suspensions, there is less formality around length of notice period. 

Exams

Hearings will not be usually be scheduled to take place during a student's examination period (usually in part of January, May and August).  This does not include coursework periods.  However, notice of a case or an invitation may be issued during an examination period.  Similarly, Fast-Track letters (particularly if a student is already aware of a case or the case is not particularly contentious) may be issued during exam periods.

Potential welfare issues

Where there are potential significant support issues concerning a student that are known to the team handling the case e.g. the student is unwell, the case could be allocated to a hearing date which allows for some time to pass so that the issues are affecting a student less prominently. 

If there are anticipated complexities to a case, whether from a support perspective or otherwise, students could be given longer than the normal notice period to prepare.  This may not be needed if there has already been a fuller disclosure of the case to the student such as at the end of an investigation.

It would not be appropriate to delay a case for an unreasonable period of time as it will be necessary for the case to be heard.  However, if the student withdraws before the hearing, a view may be taken (in discussion by the case handlers, Chair etc) to not proceed with the hearing.

The student on receipt of the invitation may request that a hearing is postponed; the Chair of the hearing can agree to this or can postpone the hearing for other reasons.  In any event, requests for postponement for welfare reasons will be carefully considered.

Length of hearings

The length of hearings will vary.  Individuals involved in a case should look at the subject of the case, its complexity, whether the case will be contentious, and who is, and how many people are, involved. Summary hearings should be scheduled for around an hour, University hearings for around 3 hours.  These can take place across the working day (Monday-Friday), but it may be advisable to avoid 9am in case there are any issues with attendance or in case correspondence has been received that needs to be reviewed.

Some complex hearings may take place over, and beyond, a full day.  Ideally these would be consecutive and not cross over a weekend. 

A hearing held on a Friday should ensure that it ends before 4pm so that students still can access support if they need it.  Staff can check when a support service / individual is available and factor this into identifying an appropriate end time for lengthy hearings.

The Procedure for Summary Disciplinary Panels and the Procedure for the University Disciplinary Panel state that the default mode for hearings is that they will take place is online.  An online hearing carries a range of benefits, including from an accessibility perspective for all attendees and it can accomplish much the same as a hearing in-person.

Students can request in-person hearings and they tend to do so when they wish to meet the panel to state their case.  Such a request would need to be considered by the Chair to confirm, though this will not be unreasonably refused, particularly if there are high-level support needs, the outcome may be significant and the case is complex. 

The challenges for in-person hearings are commonly to do with space (having enough rooms close together and with sufficient IT facilities) and availability (can everyone attend campus).  Therefore, though a request may be submitted, and it may be possible to agree to, it may delay the hearing from going ahead.  In such a circumstance, if the student has already been advised of a date, but a delay of beyond 1-2 weeks is expected because of the request, it is recommended that the student be advised of the postponement to see if they wish to revert to the original online hearing; some students may prefer to get the hearing over with.

In hearings expected to run over a number of days, it may be possible to adopt a hybrid approach so that part of the hearing is in person and the other part online.

Where the student is known to have significant support needs (e.g. has referred to / attempted self-harm in the past) and the potential penalty may also be of a high level, the University may consider that an in-person hearing is more suitable for the student and may pre-emptively arrange this prior to sending the student the hearing invitation.  Factors that may be relevant include:

• The significance of the welfare issue.
• Has the student indicated a preferred mode of attendance?
• Whether the student has a Supporter, who this is and whether they can attend.
• Is the student in-attendance / on-campus at the time of the hearing?
• If the hearing is delayed, might this negatively affect the student (and others involved)?

An invitation to an investigation meeting or disciplinary hearing will set out what the case is about, link to relevant policy, say when the meeting/hearing is taking place, a student’s rights at the stage of the process they are at and will include a section on support.

A student is usually able to submit an advance written statement.  Students need not submit a statement if they choose not to.  Late statements will only be accepted at the discretion of the case handler / disciplinary panel.  For disciplinary hearings, there is a template form that guides a student on what to include in their statement, albeit the content of the statement is for a student to produce, not for the University to advise on.

Invitations will include information on support, notably a student's ability to attend a hearing with a Supporter (and range of people who may occupy this role - fellow student, member of staff, Students' Union), it will signpost to Counselling and it will ask students whether they wish to request any reasonable adjustments for a DASS-related condition.

The invitation will be sent on 5 working days’ notice for SDPs and 10 working days’ notice for UDPs.  A longer notice period is advisable where there are known support needs or the case is complex.

The invitation need not be copied to a student’s School in all cases.  At summary level, notification may be copied to a School (and/or referring area e.g. ResLife) where there is a need for the School to be aware of the case in advance of a hearing.  At University level, the invite will be shared with the School (and/or referring area) as standard.  The School and any other appropriate areas of the University will be advised of any suspension-related cases.  Notification of investigations will be handled on a case-by-case basis by the investigator.  A notification may allow other areas of the University to reach out to the student from a support perspective. 

Though it can be difficult to anticipate what a student may raise during the disciplinary process, when a case is ready to go to a disciplinary panel, the direct subject matter will be known.  Some subjects, such as academic malpractice, are unlikely to be focussed around a sensitive nature, whereas others, like sexual misconduct, may.  In relation to the latter, it may be advisable to approach potential Panel members who are more experienced, familiar or suited to the subject of the case.  However, it would still anticipated those panel members are not given substantive details of a case until the materials are circulated.

For most University Disciplinary Panels, Panel members agree to these in advance of a semester; they do not know any details about the case.  For sexual misconduct cases, Panel members agree to the hearings knowing the subject matter of the case, but not the specific details.

Where the case is one of a sensitive subject matter, it is recommended that cover emails supplying the materials come with a trigger warning (e.g. the case materials contain allegations of a sensitive subject) and that they provide a link to the availability of staff focussed support e.g. Health Hero.

Disabilities

Individuals involved in casework may not have routine access to records which advise whether a student is in the process of registering with DASS or is already DASS registered (and if so for what condition and what a support plan states).  However, this information may become known during the process of handling a case. 

A hearing invite should prompt a student to disclose DASS registration if they wish to request any reasonable adjustments to a hearing.  This places it in the control of the student to make a condition known and to request adjustments.  These can be considered pre-emptively if there is a known support need.  Common adjustments may include:

• Extended notice period / considering postponement to scheduled hearings.
• Scheduled breaks during a hearing (e.g. 5 mins on the hour) or considering requests for breaks during the hearing.
• Live transcript on screen (for online hearings).
• Papers being more easily navigable e.g. contents page, page numbers etc
• Considering whether the hearing be in-person – if so, are the rooms sufficiently accessible.
• Extending the run time of the hearing.
• Allowing a Supporter to have a more active role in the hearing e.g. more opportunities to address the Panel, or allowing a Supporter to be from outside the University.

DASS registration is based on a student’s condition requiring reasonable adjustments in a teaching and learning setting; support plans are not created with adjustments to disciplinary hearings in mind as not all students go through this process.  If there are queries regarding potential reasonable adjustments to a hearing DASS can be contacted for advice.

If the condition may be relevant to the finding of a case (e.g. were it not for X condition, X may not have happened) then it is for a student to make this argument.  However, if such an argument is set out, and this has not already been considered prior to a case referral, it may be reasonable to submit queries to the DASS or other specialist area for their view.  With the agreement of a disciplinary panel Chair, this may extend to the involvement (whether in person or in writing) of expert witnesses in a hearing.  This has been arranged in the past where a student has referenced a condition as a contributing factor in the committal of serious alleged misconduct.  However, there are challenges to this type of involvement, and it should be considered very carefully, as a witness / service may not have diagnosed or engaged with the student to be able to comment more than generally and it may be considered that the involvement of a service may hinder future support-engagement by the student.

If a student discloses a condition during the disciplinary process which they have not disclosed to the University previously, then students should be offered a referral to DASS (and advised that they can approach DASS themselves in the alternative).  If the student consents to the referral, the referral will usually be made following the conclusion of the hearing.

Mental health

A student may disclose mental health challenges during the disciplinary process.  All students will be signposted to the Counselling and Mental Health Service as a matter of routine.  If students have already engaged with Counselling, it may be that they have a nominated Counsellor who they can contact directly.  If not, then students will need to contact the service more generally in order to be put in contact with a Counsellor.  The service is normally open Monday-Friday, 9am-5pm, and there is a Duty Counsellor available each day.  This doesn’t, however, mean that a student can be seen, or spoken to, by a Counsellor immediately on the day they request this as Counsellors may be engaged in other work.

Students are welcome to submit statements from Counselling during the disciplinary process.  Casehandlers will not seek a statement from a student’s Counsellor or ask for access to a student’s confidential records.  It is for the student to decide whether to divulge this information.

If a hearing is taken place in-person on campus, a student could be escorted to Counselling afterwards if they need this.  Within the Advice and Response Team if an in-person meeting is being held, it may be possible to hold this (numbers / availability dependent) in the Crawford House meeting room as this is only one floor down from Counselling.  

Where a student has significant mental health needs, Counselling may be alerted to an upcoming hearing date (and then subsequently advised when the hearing has concluded), so that Counselling can reach out to the student if required.  Counsellors will not be provided with the full materials for a case, only high-level details.  This approach may be mirrored with other pastoral support services for the student.

Hearings may need to be scheduled for certain days and times to minimise the impact of announcing decisions which students may not respond well to, unless there are benefits to concluding a case e.g. the student wants to know the outcome, the Panel are close to finalising a decision etc.  A Panel may opt to reach a decision, but postpone informing the student of this to an appropriate point in time.  It is recommended hearings do not continue past 4pm so a student can still access support internally.  Students will be signposted to external support as required.   

If a student receives a decision that means their registration is paused (e.g. suspension, exclusion) or ended (e.g. expulsion), signposting to Counselling will still be made and there is likely to be some limited access for students in these circumstances.  Counselling can set the limits of this support with the student, but they need to ensure any access is in line with the parameters set by the disciplinary process e.g. is the student allowed to be on campus.

Gender based violence, safeguarding and hate

Cases of this nature are normally first considered through the Assessment stage of the disciplinary process.  Any students making a report of this nature can do so through the Report and Support platform.  This will put a reporting party in contact with an Advice and Response Caseworker for practical and emotional support and confidentiality is maintained insofar as possible e.g. it will not be routinely requested that a Caseworker’s notes are used within the disciplinary process.

Respondents to cases of this nature will also be entitled to access an independent Advice and Response Caseworker for an equitable level of support. 

It will be for the Reporting Party and Respondent to decide whether they wish to have an allocated Caseworker.  If they do, some correspondence about the disciplinary process may be shared with their Caseworker e.g. dates of hearings, outcome etc, and Caseworkers may be asked to reach out to their students.  Caseworkers are well placed to have conversations with their students about what the disciplinary process may involve. 

A student can attend most meetings during the disciplinary process with a Supporter.  It is for the student to approach individuals to act in this capacity and will be for those individuals to decide whether to act in the role being requested.

For Reporting Parties, where a case is referred to a disciplinary panel, Caseworkers can advise of the potential to attend as a witness and to submit an Impact Statement.  Where a Caseworker has been advised by a Reporting Party that they wish to attend a hearing, this will be communicated to the disciplinary panel casehandler to then review whether a witness is required, and if so, it will issue a formal invitation to a hearing.  A witness may attend a hearing with their Caseworker for support.

The conclusion to a disciplinary case does not mean that the support from a Caseworker will automatically come to an end.  It will be for the Caseworker to manage continued contact based on the needs of the individual and/or case outcome.

Guidance on the Supporter role in disciplinary process is available here:

• A Supporter tends to be internal to the University, is an entitlement throughout the various stages of disciplinary process and is for a student to identify (not the University to facilitate).
• A student need not identify their Supporter for a hearing until a few days prior.
• A Supporter may be copied into correspondence if the student wants them to be.
• At meetings, Supporters will have limited rights of audience, so will usually take a silent, observation role, so that they can have an informed conversation with a student in private. It may, however, be possible, before key decision points to ask Supporters if they have anything to add in brief. 
• It is for a Supporter to manage the expectations of the student on the support that they can provide e.g. that they may need to take a lunch break.
• Panels should also ensure Supporters are included in any discussions around extending a hearing or adjourning.

The Students’ Union

The Students’ Union have an Advice Service with a number of advisors.  The Advice Service is independent of the University and can provide students with free, confidential support.  Advisors can review statements, advise on process and may attend meetings with students as their Supporter.  In relation to the latter, this will commonly be reserved for serious cases; the Advice Service is unlikely to have the resource to attend every hearing with every student.  The Advice Service will be signposted to students as standard.

Advice and Response

As advised earlier in this section of the website, a student may have an allocated Advice and Response Caseworker, particularly in cases of sexual misconduct and gender-based violence.  A Caseworker may be accepted as a Supporter during the disciplinary process. 

Multiple Supporters

A student may confide in multiple people for support.  For example, they may have a Counsellor, an Advice and Response Caseworker and a Students’ Union Advisor.  At investigatory meetings or disciplinary hearings, a student is only entitled to be accompanied to the meeting itself by one individual and so must choose who this is.  The Chair of a hearing or person coordinating the meeting, may in exceptional circumstances, allow two Supporters to be present, but this will be a rarity. 

If in-person meetings are taking place, secondary Supporters may sit in a waiting room/area allocated to the student but not be present within the main meeting. 

Third party Supporters

The starting point is that there is a sufficient range of people anticipated by Regulation XVII (Conduct and Discipline of Students) that can act in a support capacity for a student:

• "3.14 A student may, and is encouraged to, be accompanied during disciplinary proceedings  by a fellow student, a member of the University of Manchester Students’ Union or member of staff of the University of their own choice."   

A student may request that this range is extended to include an external party.  It is for the Chair of a hearing or person coordinating a case, to decide whether to allow a Supporter from outside the University.  Considerations may include things like case complexity, whether a student has engaged with internal services, whether it would be appropriate for the individual to be present during a private University process. 

If a third-party Supporter is allowed, this does not change the role or expectations of it. 

On occasion a student may request a Supporter is extended to a legal representative (i.e. somebody legally qualified as a solicitor or barrister).  A request of this nature will be considered under the associated internal Guidance to determine whether the request can be accommodated.

Translators

Students attending University are expected to have demonstrated a certain level of English-proficiency before registering. 

On occasion, an international student, may indicate (whether directly or indirectly) they feel that a translator is necessary to fully engage with the disciplinary process.  The Chair or person coordinating the case will give a request due consideration, but one of the challenges will be around ensuring a translator is accurately translating what the Panel says to the student, and what the student says to the Panel.  Therefore, caution should be exercised is allowing a translator. 

A student may feel more confident with written English in which case they could opt to send a written submission in place of attending. 

The University does not provide translators for students.  If a translator is accepted, then this can be in addition to the usual Supporter expected under the disciplinary processes and it will be for the student to communicate with them about the case details. 

Panels should carefully consider their approach to conveying information about a hearing and also questioning. Whereas for some students, additional information may be helpful, for others more concise sentences may be more helpful. 

If a hearing is happening online, an individual can enable captions in a language of their choosing and a live transcript may be possible, but this is not infallible.

Where a student is believed to have difficulties with English language, signposting should be made to the University Centre for Academic English, which has a range of helpful resources. 

DASS/Counselling

Staff from DASS and Counselling will not normally attend meetings/hearings with students as Supporters so that they can remain independent from the disciplinary process and association to the case.  However, enquiries may be made with those areas on occasion and students should feel able to submit information from those areas if they feel this may assist with their case.

Support issue could be prominent in three segments of the disciplinary process:

• Accommodating the support needs during the process
• Support issues that are pertinent to a finding
• Mitigation

Accommodating support needs has already been covered under the 'Disclosures during the disciplinary process' dropdown.

If a student believes that a support issue goes to the substance of a finding then this is for the student to raise, and not for the University at any stage of the process to infer.  It is for the student to present the associated evidence to support their response.  The University may then need to consider this response, such as by considering the credibility of the account through the case handler or Panel, or having the student’s account reviewed by an expert or someone with specialist subject knowledge/experience.  As indicated previously, a Panel may require the attendance of an expert witness at a hearing or it may submit enquires to an expert to respond to in writing.  An expert may be engaged in a similar way in other stages of the disciplinary process.

In relation to mitigation, documented support issues could be considered at an early stage of a process, when deciding how a case should be actioned e.g. might informal action be more suitable than formal.  More commonly though, support issues are most prominent when a Panel is considering a penalty to apply.  Students are encouraged to advise Panels of potential mitigating circumstances and a Panel may also enquire with other areas of the University about any welfare issues.  A Disciplinary Panel should identify any mitigating circumstances presented and whether these affect the penalty decision.  The starting point is that students should alert the University to support needs through established routes, like the mitigating circumstances process, and not commit misconduct.  Sometimes mitigation may have little bearing on what a Panel consider a proportionate penalty to apply, but on occasion accepted mitigation may cause a Panel to lessen penalties.  It can also mean that students are then appropriately signposted after the disciplinary process has ended.

Hearing introduction

It should be appreciated that a disciplinary hearing will likely be an unusual setting for a student to be in.  It will also likely be one that they would prefer not to be in.  Though the process is formal, there is no reason a hearing can't maintain an firm, but empathetic, approach and helping to manage the students expectations about the hearing itself.

When a student arrives at a hearing, whether in person or online, time permitting it can be helpful for the Chair or Secretary to briefly introduce themselves first before the hearing gets underway.  This can help to settle the student.

When the hearing starts, this will include an introduction to the people present, how the hearing will be structured and what the hearing is about.  There should also be a few checks with the student such as their awareness of the Supporter role, whether anything they've submitted has been received, if the student has any immediate questions or concerns and if they're happy to proceed.

Tell the student that a record of the meeting will be made.  If this is a recording, get their agreement, on basis the recording is an administrative aid and not for further disclosure.  If typed/written notes are being made, advise the student that there may be moments of silence during the hearing or when people may not be looking at the camera.  

The hearing

During the open discursive part of the hearing, allow the student the opportunity to say what they want to about a case.  Advise this should last no longer than 15 minutes and should focus on the key points the student wishes to convey.  A student should also have the chance to ask questions too.

The Panel are likely to have questions.  Members should think about how these are phrased so that students understand them.  For example, short questions may be helpful or sometimes questions may need additional context setting.  Panel members should avoid conveying a view of a case when asking questions.  In sexual misconduct cases, section 3 of the Guidance for Panels considering these cases, has a section on questions and phrasing; this may be helpful for other Panels too.

Panels should be mindful that in long hearings, both Panel members themselves and the student involved, may benefit from breaks, and so Chairs should be receptive to requests for short breaks during the meetings.

When decisions are reached during a hearing, these can be announced to the student verbally with brief reasoning if required.  This is not an opportunity for the student to challenge the outcome.  Appeal options can be confirmed at this point and the Panel can check on the student's welfare arrangements too e.g. 'Do you need me to contact anyone for you'.

Panel debrief

Time permitting it can be helpful to allow the Panel an opportunity to debrief after the hearing so that they can capture any thoughts and also ask about welfare arrangements for themselves.

Upset students

Unfortunately, students may receive upsetting news as a result of a disciplinary hearing.  Delivery of outcomes should be firm but empathetic, and be relayed in a way that does not evoke challenge, but that does convey support signposting and next steps in a process.

Students may also become upset during a hearing.  It is therefore important for Panel members, particularly Chairs and Secretaries to monitor the student's mood and offer them breaks if they feel upset.  With significant upset, it may be necessary to postpone the hearing, or continue in the student's absence.  

Though it is rare, a student's reaction may be indicative of a crisis situation, in which case the Counselling and Mental Health Service's advice should be followed.  It may be necessary for the Panel (or members of it) to remain with the student until the situation is addressed.

Where a student's behaviour is significantly disruptive it may be necessary to end their participation in the hearing.  Adopting a three strikes approach is advisable, but is ultimately up to the Panel at the time based on the circumstances they're presented with.  The Panel should set the expectations of behaviour during the introduction, then:

• Inappropriate behaviour one - verbally remind the student of the expected behaviour
• Inappropriate behaviour two - verbally highlight the behaviour to the student and take a 5 minute recess.
• Inappropriate behaviour three - advise the student that they will need to leave the hearing and that the hearing will likely continue in their absence.

Outcome announcement

When a significant investigatory process into a sensitive matter has concluded, it can be advisable to offer the main students involved the opportunity to receive a summary of the outcome at a meeting, where they can be advised on next steps in the process, be signposted on to support and ask questions. These meetings are not to challenge the outcome.  Meetings will tend to be before the release of any investigation report as the meeting will check that a student wants to receive it in full.

At a hearing, the outcome will usually be announced at the end.  Panels only need to provide brief reasons for decision.  Panels can then advise students on next steps in the process, appeal options and check on the student's welfare.  An announcement may not be made at the end if the Panel considers that, due to welfare reasons, the delivery of the outcome may be best deferred to another time and setting.

Email after a hearing

Unless there have been no announcement or the outcome letter is expected to be sent out swiftly, it is good practice for the student to be sent an email soon after the hearing which:

• States the high level finding and penalties
• Signposts on to support
• Advises when the student can expect the outcome letter

This can help provide some initial closure on the hearing for students.  The email can be copied to the student’s academic School for information.

Outcome letter

Outcome letters should be sent within 10 working days of hearing outcomes.  The letter should clearly set out any decision made and reasons for those decisions.

The letter should include signposting on support and commonly, a paragraph on support may suffice, particularly to the Student Support website.  This information can be tailored based on what a student has disclosed in their hearing e.g. Counselling, DASS, mitigating circumstances process. 

For students who disclose a disability or a potential disability and they are not already registered with DASS, a referral should be offered to the student by the casehandler, such as in their outcome letter.  It is up to the student to agree to the referral.  If they do, the necessary referral process should be followed and appropriate information disclosed to DASS (DASS will not need to know the full case details, just about the student’s disclosure).

Other than the Essential Courses for all staff, the extra courses below are advisable:

• Essential Courses (Including Disability Equity)
• The Stepped Care Model
• Supporting Students
• Responding to Student Mental Health Problems