Tuesday, 06 July 2021
A new 38-part blueprint for universities to take action against modern slavery will be launched today by the University of Nottingham in partnership with its Rights Lab.
In a new report, modern slavery experts detail the areas of risk for universities and set out practical steps for institutions to tackle them.
As part of the Modern Slavery Act 2015 (MSA), universities are expected to prepare a slavery and human trafficking statement for each financial year. The Slavery-Free Campus report offers a model for how universities can move beyond minimum compliance with these reporting requirements, to lead in making a distinct and important contribution towards the achievement of UN Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 8.7 of ending modern slavery.
The report includes a new multi-part blueprint, which assigns responsibility to all parts of the campus — from procurement and legal, to estates and HR. The team behind the report, including Dr Lisa Carroll as the University of Nottingham’s Commercial Director, hopes that this new action plan will help all universities, including Nottingham, to do everything in their power to make their campuses free of modern slavery.
Universities have significant potential to be more fully involved in antislavery efforts locally, nationally, and internationally. This important report suggests the principles around which universities can mobilise resources and strengths as educational communities, employers, buyers, investors, and civic partners.
Professor Landman, who today will chair a launch event for the report and its blueprint, continued: "The report's Slavery-Free Campus Blueprint provides 38 practical steps for any university to use or adapt in its annual workplan for tackling modern slavery risk. It is time for all universities to move beyond minimum compliance with the reporting requirements of the MSA, and become leaders in the work of tackling and ending modern slavery—starting with their own campuses.”
To help design this blueprint, the researchers analysed 160 UK universities and the resulting report highlights three main areas of exploitation risk: staff, students, and procurement.
The academics say that university staff conducting unskilled labour can be vulnerable to modern slavery, with those in high-risk categories including catering, cleaning and construction. Their research identified that Human Resources (HR) procedures were also a risk, such as using agencies to source staff, paying below the living wage and temporary contracts.
University students who may be struggling financially can be vulnerable to modern slavery, for example, through sexual exploitation and county lines, the system whereby drugs are transported from one area to another, often across police and local authority boundaries, usually by children or vulnerable people who are coerced and controlled by gangs. The experts say that international students may be at particular risk due to a potential lack of cultural awareness and the misuse of student visas, used under the guise to traffic victims.
Within procurement, the experts note that universities acknowledge the risk of purchasing goods that may have modern slavery in the supply chain. High-risk goods are identified by universities as: information communications technology (ICT), audio visual technology (AVT), laboratory consumables, office supplies, food, general catering supplies, and clothing (including staff and student uniforms).
The report set out recommendations for mitigation of the three main areas of risk and also calls for further focus on research into modern slavery as well as engagement by universities with their local communities. This can include partnering with NGOs to deliver training and outreach, offering office space to local antislavery NGOs and supporting local modern slavery multi-agency partnerships - which are now in place in most areas of the UK and address modern slavery in their locality.
Lead author, Amelia Watkins-Smith, said: “Universities are directly affected by the issue of modern slavery. They are sites of exploitation risk, and of risk mitigation and antislavery education and engagement."
The ‘Slavery-Free Campus’ concept commits a university to taking action to ensure that its systems are as resilient as possible to modern slavery—that it has taken all possible action in its procurement, hiring, safeguarding, and training to prevent modern slavery, and has a clear process for managing instances of modern slavery if they do occur.
The University of Nottingham will launch the blueprint at an event today at 2:30pm – register to attend here.
The report, The Slavery-Free Campus – a Blueprint: 38 practical steps for universities to tackle modern slavery, can be accessed here.
Notes to editors:
About the University of Nottingham
Ranked 32 in Europe and 16th in the UK by the QS World University Rankings: Europe 2024, the University of Nottingham is a founding member of the Russell Group of research-intensive universities. Studying at the University of Nottingham is a life-changing experience, and we pride ourselves on unlocking the potential of our students. We have a pioneering spirit, expressed in the vision of our founder Sir Jesse Boot, which has seen us lead the way in establishing campuses in China and Malaysia - part of a globally connected network of education, research and industrial engagement.
Nottingham was crowned Sports University of the Year by The Times and Sunday Times Good University Guide 2024 – the third time it has been given the honour since 2018 – and by the Daily Mail University Guide 2024.
The university is among the best universities in the UK for the strength of our research, positioned seventh for research power in the UK according to REF 2021. The birthplace of discoveries such as MRI and ibuprofen, our innovations transform lives and tackle global problems such as sustainable food supplies, ending modern slavery, developing greener transport, and reducing reliance on fossil fuels.
The university is a major employer and industry partner - locally and globally - and our graduates are the second most targeted by the UK's top employers, according to The Graduate Market in 2022 report by High Fliers Research.
We lead the Universities for Nottingham initiative, in partnership with Nottingham Trent University, a pioneering collaboration between the city’s two world-class institutions to improve levels of prosperity, opportunity, sustainability, health and wellbeing for residents in the city and region we are proud to call home.
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