Code of conduct

At THE, we pride ourselves on hosting and co-hosting events that foster impactful conversations across the global higher education sector that are open to all communities across the globe. As well as feeling intellectually stimulated, we believe that attendees have the right to feel welcome and secure in their surroundings. This code of conduct outlines our commitments to promoting and sustaining an atmosphere of professionalism and inclusivity across all our events.

Scope

This code of conduct applies to anyone attending or contributing to a THE or partner event for the full duration of that event whether it is online, in person or both.

Our standards

Our events represent a sector without borders. They are a celebration of the diversity of universities that champion innovation and best practice worldwide. By embracing talent from all corners of the world, and promoting partnership working across cultures, universities put themselves in the best position to solve some of the planet’s greatest challenges. To reflect this, we have adopted the following standards:

Put attendees at the heart of everything we do
We aim to give fair representation to all regions through our events, from our local Forums to our global Summits ensuring a diverse range of speakers, contributors and delegates.

Encourage collaboration to be greater than the sum of our parts
Our events aim to create opportunities for all attendees to network, learn, explore and challenge. We ask attendees to act in a collaborative manner, voice opinion in a constructive and kind way and to respect other points of view. Our events are an opportunity for us all to learn from each other’s perspectives.

Embrace equality, fairness and diversity
We ask our attendees to employ inclusive and thoughtful language that embraces and honours the diversity of their fellow participants, while still encouraging the opportunity for healthy debate and multiple points of view. Event attendees are expected to be inclusive and supportive of others, no matter their background including, but not limited to, race, religious or political affiliation, gender identity or social values. In addition, we expect all attendees to be mindful of different customs and religions and to avoid language that could be misunderstood or misinterpreted.

Treat everyone with respect and compassion
THE understands that the variables that make our events ripe for debate and discussion can also produce unacceptable comments and behaviour, often unintendedly. THE will commit to providing the time and resources to deal with any kind of inappropriate situation effectively. We want to ensure that attendees are never cowed from attending an event intended to serve as a platform for knowledge and expertise.

We ask attendees to support and protect others by reporting any inappropriate behaviour that fails to comply with these standards including, but not limited to:

• Violent and threatening language or behaviour used to intimidate another person
• Sexist, racist, xenophobic, homophobic, transphobic or ableist remarks
• Unwelcome physical contact
• Harassment or stalking
• Excessive swearing
• Disrupting speeches and conversations

Reporting an incident

If you or another attendee experiences any of the above, or anything else you deem to be inappropriate behaviour, we pledge to take all reasonable steps to deal with the situation sensitively and effectively. Please contact THE’s director of operations, Adeyemi Adeshiyan, on [email protected] if you wish to report an incident.

Reports that are found to contravene our standards will result in the warning or expulsion of the offender. All reports will be handled sensitively and follow our complaints procedure which can be requested at any time.

Thank you for respecting our code of conduct.

Yours sincerely,

Phil Baty
Chief knowledge officer
THE