Teaching About Terrorism: University of St Andrews

Teaching About Terrorism is a 2009/10 research project funded by C-SAP, one of the Higher Education Academy's subject networks. The project aims to research the extent and nature of teaching about terrorism in UK Universities, primarily in the disciplines of Sociology, Politics and Criminology.

Freedom of Information Request 1

According to the response of this University to the initial four part teaching terrorism FOI request, the answer to all four questions was 'no'. The four questions being:

• Does your institution provide any information or advice to students or staff on any potential liability under Terrorism legislation which might result from accessing materials for teaching or research ?

The University does not provide any information or advice to students or staff on any potential liability under Terrorism legislation, which might result from accessing materials for teaching or research. Although not directly related, travel advice provided on our website does make mention of terrorism and directs both staff and students to the Foreign & Commonwealth website dealing with destinations and potential terrorist threats. Summary of Travel Insurance

• Does your institution have any kind of procedure to review or assess reading lists, module descriptors or other teaching materials which explicitly or in practice considers questions of safety and risk under terrorism legislation as part of its remit ?

The University does not have any kind of formal procedure in place to review or assess reading lists, module descriptors or other teaching materials.

• Does your institution have any system, policy or procedure in place for dealing with any potential actions taken by the authorities against the institution, its students or staff under Terrorism legislation ?

See Question 4.

• Does your institution have any system, policy or procedure in place for ‘preventing violent extremism’ as recommended for example in the government guidance document ‘Promoting Good Campus Relations’

In response to questions 3 and 4 above, the University of St Andrews does not have any defined system, policy or set of procedures in place in either regard. In the event that such matters arose, these would be considered by the Security Strategy Group which meets quarterly and the Security Operations Group which meets once per semester. The remit of the Security Operations Group dated 14 March 2007 is to:

• Inform future security strategy development and implementation.
• Share information of incidents of security (welfare and discipline) throughout the institution to be discussed in broad terms (without personalisation).
• Track informal complaints and/or reports of security risks.
• Assist with identification of shared experiences where a pattern of security risk may be developing.
• Design training and procedural assistance to a wide spectrum of staff, helping them to understand when it is appropriate and critical, to pass on information where a suspicion of a security risk is present.

Any issues arising from the Security Operations Group are fed into the wider Security Strategy Group of the University (no formal remit currently exists for this group). I trust this satisfies your request, however, if you have any queries regarding the information which has been provided please do not hesitate to contact me.

Resources

• Freedom of Information Results, Teaching About Terrorism: FOI Results
• University of St Andrews, Teaching About Terrorism Freedom of Information Request 1 Response, Scribd