Teaching About Terrorism: University of Westminster

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

• 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?

A1. The University has a ‘Code of Practice on Freedom of Speech Within the University’ and a ‘University of Westminster Diversity and Dignity at Work and Study Policy’. Copies of these documents are enclosed. Further more, the University has an IT Acceptable Use Policy readily accessible on its public website (see ). All these codes and policies, whilst not explicitly referencing Terrorism legislation, help guide staff and student behaviour in ways which may be relevant to your request. Additionally, the University provides guidance through its Research Ethics Committee on the procedures to be followed to consider and conduct research and in the bi-annual monitoring of research activity, which could possibly involve material relating to groups proscribed by the UK’s Home Office. Research guidance is readily accessible on the University’s public website (see ).

• 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?

A2. The University does not explicitly address the issue you raise in any specific procedure or criteria. However, all taught courses and their constituent modules are reviewed for validation by an independent peer group. This process involves scrutiny of all syllabus content and bibliographies and other sources of information. This is not a new approach, and whilst the criteria do not explicitly address terrorism as such, in practice material which might be related to terrorism would be scrutinised through this process.

• 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?

A3. The University does not have any specific 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.:The University does have an ‘Incident Management and Emergency Response Plan (IMERP) which, depending on the nature of any incident or situation, may require the convening of an Incident Management Team. The composition of this team and the chain of command regarding decision making in any incident or situation will depend on the severity of any incident or the developing situation. Additionally, the University has made readily accessible on its public website a statement in relation to the general threat of terrorism and University arrangements (see )

• 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’?

A4. The University does not have any specific system, policy or procedure currently in place for ‘preventing violent extremism’. The University does currently have a ‘Code of Practice on Freedom of Speech Within the University’ and a ‘University of Westminster Diversity and Dignity at Work and Study Policy’ and an ‘IT Acceptable Use Policy’, all of which we have referred to in A1 above.

The University has reached an agreement with the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, subject to Parliamentary approval, for a grant not exceeding £9,000 in the year April 1st 2010 to March 31st 2011 to be used to support the following PREVENT1 activities:

Staff awareness training.

Student participation activities.

Creation of a PREVENT Steering Group.

Staff and student literature.

The information supporting these activities, i.e. training materials, literature, etc have not yet been produced, although it is currently anticipated that they will be published in the future..

Resources

• Freedom of Information Results, Teaching About Terrorism: FOI Results
• University of Westminster, Response to Teaching About Terrorism FOI 1, Scribd
• University of Westminster, Code of Practice on Freedom of Speech at the University of Westminster, Scribd
• University of Westminster, Diversity and Dignity at Work and Study Policy, Scribd