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UCL will not tolerate acts of hate within our community, and we will be fast to act if a student or staff experiences hate crime.
UCL is renowned for having a wonderfully diverse community. We are proud to attract talent from all over the world, it is what makes UCL such a special and unique learning environment. Unfortunately, in recent months we have had reports of Hate Crime towards students and staff.
What is hate crime?
These are acts motivated by hostility due to a person’s race, religion, age, sexual orientation or gender.
What types of acts can be motivated by hate?
Verbal
Verbal abuse, threats or name-calling can be a common and extremely distressing experience for those targeted. Victims of verbal abuse are often unclear whether an offence has been committed or believe there is little they can do. However, there are laws in place to protect us from verbal abuse.
Physical
Physical assault of any kind is an offence, but if it is motivated by hatred because of the above characteristics this may carry a harsher punishment.
Online
The offence of incitement to hatred occurs when someone acts in a way that is threatening and intended to stir up hatred. That could be in words, pictures, videos, music, and includes information posted on websites. Hate content may include:
- messages calling for violence against a specific person or group
- web pages that show pictures, videos or descriptions of violence against anyone due to their perceived differences
- chat forums where people ask other people to commit hate crimes against a specific person or group
Criminal Damage
This could be damage to the victim’s property whilst making comments that demonstrate hate or it could be graffiti of pictures or words that show hate because of a real or perceived characteristic belonging to the victim.
What can you do?
In an emergency, please call Police on 999 or if on campus call Security on 020 7679 2222.
You can report anonymously at UCL through Report+Support, and if you would like to speak to someone you can ask to be contacted by an advisor to give some advice and support.
Alternatively, you can report to the UCL Hate Crime Reporting Centre.
We would always encourage anyone who has experienced hate crime to report it to Police, which you can do online or you can call 101 to report after the incident has taken place