If you attended the Liberal Democrat Party Conference – or are attending the Labour Party Conference – you may have seen/may see a fringe event run by the #ForThe100, a group of bereaved families seeking to establish a statutory duty of care for students under the law.
The debate surrounding this campaign focuses largely on responsibilities around suicide prevention – which Sunday has previously argued often means nuance is lost around the responsibilities of universities in wider matters of harm prevention.
So the Feder and McCamish v The Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama (RWCMD) case is an interesting one because it does not involve suicide. Rather, the student claimants argued that they experienced harm caused by the institution’s negligent investigation into their complaints of sexual misconduct – and that the institution failed in its duty of care.
The judge found in their favour – ruling that the college was negligent in its response to the sexual assault allegations, and had failed in a particular duty of care relating to the processes surrounding the allegations.
