Insight Report Academic Year 2024-25

Insight Report Academic Year 2024-25

Introduction

This insight report will analyse reports made in Academic Year 2024-25 (period 23/09/2024 until 31/08/2025). LSE introduced the 'Report + Support' reporting platform on 23rd September 2024. LSE previously used a system called 'Report it, Stop it'.

The introduction of this new reporting platform is part of LSE's change programme regarding issues of harassment and sexual misconduct on campus. Therefore, the introduction of this reporting platform happened alongside the introduction of mandatory consent training for all new students and mandatory staff training on addressing harassment and sexual misconduct. To read about all the prevention work that LSE is doing, please see our single source on Tackling Harassment and Sexual Misconduct.

A key part of our prevention work is focusing on increasing awareness of our report and support pathways, and stregthening trust in our systems and processes. To increase trust, we are increasing transparency on the reports received by LSE. Last academic year (24-25) we begun publishing termly insight reports compared to previous annual insight reports on the 'Report it, Stop it' platform. The termly reports for academic year 24-25 can be found in Annex 3 of this report.

This report is the 'Annual Insight Report' which will bring together all the reports received via Report + Support in academic year 24-25. This report will include anonymised information on outcomes, including formal case outcomes and sanctions.

Report + Support: Key Insights

Number of reports

In academic year 24-25, LSE received 206 reports via the Report + Support tool. This is compared to 138 reports in academic year 23-24 (period 25/09/2023 until 22/09/2024) made via the Report it, Stop it tool. This highlights a 46% increase in reporting from last academic year.

An increase in reporting was expected and welcomed, as this shows an increased awareness of our reporting platform and results in more students and staff being made aware of their report and support options. We believe this increase in awareness is partly because of the introduction of mandatory student and staff training.

The chart belows shows how many reports were made each month of the year. There was a spike of reports in February and early March. During this period we received several reports about the 'Understanding Hamas' book launch event. You can also see in the chart below that reports were greater during Autumn Term and Winter Term, and lower in Spring Term and during school break periods.

Who is reporting?

Student's were the most likely group to report on Report + Support with 60.2% of reports being made by students. LSE has over 12,000 student's enrolled across all levels of study (this number does not include summer school students). Our student population is much larger than the number of staff members. Staff reports made up 17.5% of reports made via Report + Support. In academic year 23-24, student's were also the most likely group to report, with 68.1% reports being made by students on Report it, Stop it.

Types of reports (anonymous vs. contactable)

On Report + Support, the reports were mainly made by those directly impacted by the incident, with 73.8% of people ticking the incident happened to 'me', 18.9% 'someone else', and '7.3%' prefer not to say.

LSE received more reports with contact details compared to anonymous, 60.9% named, 39.1% anonymous. In academic year 23-24, the percentages were much the same (62.3% named). However, when the reporting person/ person impacted by an incident was a staff member, the report was more likely to be anonymous. For this group, 36.1% of reports were made with contact details, compared to 73.4% when the reporting person/ person impacted by an incident was a student.

In terms of reasons for reporting anonymously, the top reasons for student's were "I want you to have this information but I don't want to be identified", followed by "I am worried about repurcussions for me and others."

For staff, they were "I am worried about repurcussions for me and others", followed by "I feel I don't have enough evidence to prove anything", "I feel like they have more authority than me" and "I am worried it may impact by future career/studies."

The top reason for anonymous reports in academic year 2023-24 was similarly, "I am concerned my personal/social life will be negatively affected (from repercussions or retaliation)".

Incident types

On Report + Support, reporting persons can select multiple incident types from the following list: An assault, bullying, general concern, harassment, a hate incident, sexual misconduct, I'm not sure, other. A short definition of each incident type is provided to help guide the reporting person in their selection.

Reports can select more than one incident type, so the numbers below do exceed the total number of reports received. This table highlights how many times each incident type was selected.

It should be noted that behaviours are recorded as self-reported and not verified against any legal or policy definitions. For example, there are several reports where incident types have been selected, however upon review of the report the behaviour described would not meet the legal and/or LSE policy defintion for this incident type.

The most reported incident type across all reports was "General Concern". Not including "General Concern", the top selected incident type where the reporting person/ person impacted by the incident was a student was "Harassment", whilst for staff it was "Bullying". The most reported inciden type in 2023-24 was "Harassment".

Location of incidents

The most reported location on reports was 'In an academic setting' which accounted for 25.7% of reports. The chart below highlights there was a spike of reports made about incidents in an academic setting in February 2025. This aligns with when LSE received an influx of reports regarding the 'Understand Hamas and why it matters' book launch.

The second highest reported location across the year was 'online' accounting for 19.9%. We recognised this trend during the year, and made changes to our mandatory consent training for all new student's to include a case scenario on online harassment. This training was delivered to all new students in September/October 2025.

Suspected factor

When reporting, you are asked "Do you feel as though any of the following factors played a role in the incident?". The most selected answer where the reporting person/ impacted person was a student was "Ethnicity/Race", and for staff it was "Gender" and "Other". Last year's the most selected category overall was "Race".

For staff reports, when selected "Other", 5 out of 8 of these reports mentioned themes around power imbalances in positionality/ seniority of the reported person, and 4 out of 5 of those reports were anonymous.

Reported persons

Data on reported persons (e.g. the person accused of the reported behaviour) was only gathered from 28 March 2025. In this time there were 74 reports. From these reports, the reporting person/ person impacted was a student in 60.8% and 16.2% it was a staff member.

When asked who the reported person was (in respect of their relationship to LSE), 'staff' was selected in 29 of the 74 reports, which accounts for 39.2% of reports, whilst 'student' was selected in 20 of the 74 reports, accounting for 27% of reports. The other categories include member of the public, visitor, alumni, I don't know and prefer not to say.

Out of the 29 reports where staff were identified as the reported person, the reporting person/ person impacted was another staff member in 9 reports and in 11 reports it was a student, 5 said they would prefer not to say. In the 20 reports where students were identified as the reported person, the reporting person/ person impacted was another student in 19 of the reports.

From the 29 reports where staff were identified as the reported person, only 12 were reports with contact details, the others were anonymous. In the 20 reports where students were identified as the reported person, 18 provided contact details, 2 were anonymous.

Demographic

Demographic data is an optional add on to the reporting form. Across the demographic questions, there were 20-33% that were unanswered.

In regards to gender, women are reporting most commonly. In terms of ethnicity, from those who answered, the top selected group was 'prefer not to say' at 12.6% followed by 'Asian or Asian British - Chinese' at 10.7%. The age group most impacted was 18-21 years at 25.7%. In terms of disability, 23.8% said they had no known impairment health condition or learning difference. There were16.5% that said they had a mental health difficulty, such as depression, schizophrenia or anxiety disorder. Most people reported having no religion/faith (22.3%), the top selected religion was Jewish which made up 14.1%.

Report + Support: Case timelines & outcomes

Triage times

All reports made on Report + Support are reviewed by LSE. Reports where the reporting person/ person impacted is a staff member are reviewed by our Senior HR Partner. After review, the Senior HR Partner will assign the case to someone within the HR Partner team. All other reports, including reports made by students, will be reviewed by the Deputy Head of Student Services (Advice & Policy) & Head of Student Advice and Engagement Management. These cases will then be assigned to a member of the Student Services team. When a case is 'assigned' it has been 'triaged'.

Once a case has been triaged, if it includes contact details, the reporting person will receive contact regarding their report. We aim to make initial contact within 3 working days of receiving a report. In 69% of cases, reports were triaged in 0-3 days from the report being made.

The table below sets out triage times. This is measured in calendar days, therefore including weekends, bank holidays and school closure days. This accounts for some of the longer wait times. Also, between 4th February and 24th February there was a technical issue with the system which meant Student Services were not being notified of several student reports. This issue was sorted as quickly as possible and explanation and apologies were given to students impacted.

There were 30 reports last academic year that were reviewed but not assigned, these account for the 'Unknown'. After our administrators reviewed these reports, they were either closed down as spam/duplicates, closed as anonymous because there were no details in the report that could lead to intervention or action, or reviewed and actioned by the administrators themselves. This has been noted, and all cases in 2025-26 will be assigned, including to the administrators themselves if they are the ones to review, action and close.

Outcomes

After initial review, if there are contact details, the assigned case handler will make contact with the reporting person, and will usually make an appointment to meet with the reporting person to discuss further.

As far as possible our teams are led by the wishes of the reporting person. Many people who report opt for an informal resolution rather than formal. This can include asking for the behaviour and the impact to be outlined to the reported person. It can also include options such as: agreements of 'no contact', mediation, class changes. Informal action in regards to student cases can be taken under our LSE student disciplinary procedure.

Others, may be looking for support resources. Our team's can offer signposting for both internal and external support services.

The table below shows the outcomes selected where the reporting person/ person impacted was a staff member. The number of outcomes may be higher than the number of reports made as it is possible to select more than one outcome when closing a case.

This table highlights the outcomes when the reporting person/ person impacted was a student. Again, the number of outcomes may be higher than number of reports since more than one can be selected per report:

Outcomes explained

It may seem concerning to see a sizeable number of 'No Further Action' outcomes. However, this refers to various situations such as: the reporting person does not respond to meet, the reporting person withdraws their report, the reporting person does not wish to pursue the report right now but asks for the report to stay on record, or there is no direct action possible (e.g. the reported persons are not members of the LSE community or the behaviour reported did not meet the thresholds set out in our policies).

All reports, including those closed as 'no further action' were reviewed, assessed and where contact details were given, support was signposted in an email and/or at an initial meeting.

In the context of these outcomes, 'support', was being considered by case handlers as when internal or external support referrals were made as part of the case handling, rather than when support was discussed, and signposted.

Where cases were 'closed as anonymous', the report was reviewed and assessed by Student Services or HR. The report remains on record and would still be considered in any name matching search. Anonymous reports are useful in providing the School with insight into what is happening on campus, and they allow for targeted interventions, resource allocation and strategic decision-making. In many anonymous cases some form of informal action is still pursued. For example, feedback will be provided to Department/Division leads, training will be recommended or security will be informed of risk areas.

It should be noted that in cases that were 'referred to formal complaint/ grievance/ disciplinary', this does not mean a formal complaint/grievance or disciplinary was initiated, it means that the option to go down this route was provided. It may have been that informal resolution was attempted but unsuccessful and reporting individuals were given the option to refer to a formal process or they were referred to the formal process from the initial discussion due to the seriousness / nature of the report. Cases may have been referred but reporting persons did not want to pursue this formal route.

Outcomes have been reviewed after the first year of using Report + Support and we have made some amendments to our outcome labels, plus provided staff with guidance on when to select outcomes. This should ensure our outcome data is more clear and consistently applied in academic year 25-26.

Case timelines

LSE aims to resolve reports in a timely manner. For 72.3% of reports, cases were closed to the system within 1 month (30 days). Most cases coming through our Report + Support channel are not resulting in formal actions under the relevant student and staff procedures, which is also why these cases have been able to be resolved with relative speed.

Formal cases and outcomes (Bullying, harassment & sexual misconduct)

When a student is the reported individual, and their behaviour may be in breach of our policies, the Student Disciplinary Procedure can be used to determine an informal or formal outcome.

When a LSE staff member is the reported individual, and their behaviour may be in breach of our policies, the Grievance Policy and Procedure for Professional Services Staff, the Disciplinary Policy and Procedure for Professional Services Staff and the Academic Annex can be used to determine an informal or formal outcome.

The wishes of the reporting person are considered when determining whether a case will be resolved via informal or formal means.

Read more about LSE Policies and Procedures.

The below data details reports made that were dealt with formally under our relevant LSE procedures. This will include reports made via Report + Support, as well as reports that were made directly to HR or Legal.

Formal student cases

During 2024/25 academic year, there were 4 cases formally investigated under the Student Disciplinary Procedure.

The outcome of these cases were as follows:

• 1 was dismissed by School Secretary following investigation
• 1 was referred for informal resolution under Student Disciplinary Procedure following investigation
• 2 were upheld following investigation
• 0 number were referred to a Board of Discipline to consider the allegation, and determine the appropriate outcome

Of those upheld, a combination of the following sanctions were implemented:

• Formal written apology
• Formal verbal warning
• No-contact instructions
• Temporary ban from campus

(Note: Multiple sanctions/outcomes can apply to a particular case)

The case subjects were: Bullying & Harassment x3, Physical Misconduct x1, Property Damage x1.

Formal Staff Cases

During 2024/25 academic year, there were 4 cases regarding staff behaviours which led to formal action under LSE procedures.

The outcome of these cases were as follows:

• 2 formal grievance process concluded and not upheld.
• 1 formal grievance process concluded and upheld, formal disciplinary invoked and upheld.
• 1 formal disciplinary invoked and upheld.

Of those upheld, the following sanctions were implemented:

• Formal warning issued.
• Staff dismissal.

The case subjects were: Bullying x3, Sexual Harassment x1.

Annex 1 Report + Support Reporting Data

The incident happened to:

Reporting form (Anonymous vs. contact details)

Reporting person: Relationship to organisation

Relationship to organisation (reporting person) split with reporting form

Reason for anonymous reporting

Location of incident

Suspected factor

Reported person

Annex 2 Report + Support Demographic Data

Gender

Gender matches birth

Ethnicity

Sexual Identity

Age

Disability

Faith/ Religion

Annex 3 Termly Reports Academic Year 24-25

Autumn Term Insight Report 24/25

Winter Term Insight Report 24/25

Spring Term Insight Report 24/25