Radboud University Releases Report to Enhance Support Structure for Social Safety
Radboud University has expressed its ambition to see a significant improvement in social safety by the end of 2025. The report ‘Social safety at Radboud University’, which zooms in on the support structure, offers tools to work towards a university where students and staff know where they stand: what is desirable behavior, and where to turn if behavior does not meet this.
Analysis
In mid-2023, the Executive Board commissioned the Governance & Integrity International (G&I) office to analyze how to strengthen the university’s existing structure to better support our social safety initiatives. This agency evaluated the university’s existing support structure and examined opportunities for improvement and professionalization of this system. The independent analysis conducted interviews with various members of the academic community and studied documents. Their analysis revealed that the threshold for filing a complaint is high for some, and that the recording and documentation of reports needs improvement. Additionally, clarity is needed on what exactly constitutes a report, a signal, a complaint, or request for advice.
Recommendations
The G&I report gives several recommendations to work on streamlining the reporting system, which ultimately benefits social safety. For example, it recommends setting up a single point of contact to receive reports, coordinate and monitor the reporting process. With this, the university can gain knowledge from cases that occur and learn lessons for prevention. In addition, clear definitions of various violations can be helpful to both reporters and recipients of reports. The G&I report also describes that there is room for improvement regarding aftercare for both the reporter and the person about whom a report is made. Nine out of the ten recommendations are adopted by the university. The tenth recommendation, concerning reports of scientific integrity, will not be adopted yet.
Future
The recommendations in the G&I report are in line with the previously published plan of approach to social safety ‘Prevent – Care – Cure’. Based on this, several subprojects are now being developed. More information on these will be shared shortly.