The ACS Disciplinary Process

The Accommodation & Commercial Services (ACS) disciplinary process is a formal process that’s used to investigate a report of misconduct involving students living in residences. The term ‘misconduct’ means poor behaviour. For residents in University Accommodation, this could include any behaviour that breaches your residence contract, or the Regulations relating to the Discipline of Students. It could also include a breach of the policy on Political Expression and Campaigning in Residences, or The Student Code of Conduct.

The ACS Conduct team follows this disciplinary process whenever we receive a report of possible misconduct.

Here’s how it works:

• A report describing an incident of possible misconduct is sent to the ACS Conduct Team.

• The Conduct Team makes enquiries to gather evidence and investigate.

• If the issue is less serious, informal action may be taken, including sending warning letters to those involved, or asking residents to attend a meeting to agree a new way to approach a problem together.

• If there isn't enough information available to decide what to do, an investigatory meeting may be held to decide whether a formal meeting is necessary.

• If the issue is more serious, a formal meeting will be held.

• At the end of the meeting, staff will decide whether misconduct took place. If it did, we’ll impose a penalty.

Different kinds of issues will be handled in different ways. Some issues are very serious and will always require a full, formal investigation. Other issues may be accidents, or rooted in misunderstandings, and these will often be handled more informally whenever this is possible.

An investigation starts with some evidence which is provided to the Conduct Team to investigate. We'll make enquiries, including speaking to staff and students, contacting Security Services, and checking any available CCTV footage. As part of this process, we’ll decide who we need to speak to during the investigation. If you’re mentioned in the evidence in any way, even as a witness or bystander, you may need to attend an investigatory meeting to share whatever you know.

If you’re required to attend a meeting as part of an investigation, you’ll be sent a formal referral email. This message will tell you when your meeting is, and how to attend it. If you can’t attend the meeting because of academic commitments, you'll need to reply to the email straight away to arrange a new time.

You should note that being referred to a meeting doesn't mean you'll eventually be found to have been involved in misconduct. It's an investigatory meeting, and you're required to attend to support that investigation. You should be open and polite, and engage however you're asked to.

The referral email may come with some evidence attached, so you can understand why the Conduct Team thinks you might have information about the possible misconduct. The evidence is often a Security report, a report from other staff members, or something similar. Sometimes it will be a formal statement from another student, or perhaps a report about damage or vandalism in your accommodation. Make sure you read through the attached evidence before the meeting, so you understand why you’re involved in the investigation. If you have any questions at all, you can ask them by email before the meeting itself. 

The email also explains more how the process works. It reminds you that you can bring a friend or representative with you to the meeting, if you’d like to have someone there for support. It also invites you to write a statement about what happened and send it in advance, to help you feel more prepared for the meeting. This is optional, but it's often useful if you get anxious in formal settings, or if you find it difficult to recall information in conversations.

If it's a group meeting, with several people potentially involved in the incident, the letter will also suggest that the people responsible for the incident might want to accept sole responsibility at this stage. If they do decide to do this, and they write back to the Conduct Team to say so, anyone who it’s agreed isn’t involved may be released from the investigation.

If you’ve got any access or support needs that might affect the meeting, you can let the Conduct Team know in advance. This will make sure the meeting is held in a way that takes this into account, so you’re not disadvantaged.

Before the meeting, you can also access some support if you’re feeling worried. You could do some or all of the following:

• Contact the Student Advice Centre to speak to someone about the meeting, or read through their help pages.

• Contact your Residence Life Mentor, to discuss your worries and learn more about the disciplinary process.

• Contact the Wellbeing Service to access some more general support.

• Read our other articles on The Regulations relating to the Discipline of Students and your residence contract, to help you understand more about the process and how it works.

In the meeting itself, the same formal process is always followed. First, the staff members will introduce themselves. Usually, one person will lead the meeting, and a second person will take notes to provide a record of what’s discussed. Depending on the individual circumstances, sometimes other people will also be present. You’ll be given an explanation of the process and procedures that will be followed. You’ll also be asked to confirm your personal details, and those of any guest you’ve brought with you. You might also be asked to give a mobile number.

In the next part of the meeting, the evidence of the alleged misconduct will be summarised. This is the same evidence that was attached to your referral email. If there’s any additional evidence, like statements from other people, this will be summarised too.

After this summary, it’s your chance to respond to this evidence. If you think any of the evidence is incorrect, or missing any details, you can say so, and you can explain anything else you want to. If there are any mitigating circumstances that you would like to be considered, like any difficult personal issues you were going through at the time, or other reasons why you acted in the way that you did, you can explain those too. It’s usually in your best interests to engage fully, and explain any regrets you have about the incident.

After you’ve responded to the evidence, the investigating officer will ask you some follow-up questions to find out more details. They'll want to know not only what happened, but how, and why. If you think there’s been a mistake and you shouldn’t be being investigated, you should politely explain why. Explain who was involved, if you know, and offer any evidence you have to show that you yourself weren’t involved, or that you didn’t behave improperly. If you did behave in the way the evidence described, but you’ve now had a chance to reflect on your behaviour, and you understand why you shouldn’t have acted in that way, you can take this opportunity to say so. Your attitude during the meeting will be taken into account, so it’s important to be open and honest. 

When the meeting resumes, the investigating officer will explain to you how this behaviour may have breached the Terms and Conditions of your Residence Contract, and The Regulations relating to the Discipline of Students. You’ll have the chance to ask any questions you want to, to make sure that you understand, and know how to avoid finding yourself in this situation again in future. At the end of this discussion, the officer will confirm with you whether you understand the impact of your behaviour, whether you regret it, and how you intend to avoid repeating it. At the end of this conversation, the meeting will be closed, and you’ll be able to leave.

Most of the time an investigation will only require one meeting, but sometimes several will be needed. Following the final meeting of an investigation, the investigating officers will review all the information gathered. This includes the evidence you were sent with your referral email, and all the information that’s been shared in the meetings related to this case.

Taking all this into account, the officers will make a decision about whether misconduct has taken place. This will include specifically what that misconduct was, and your individual involvement in the incident. This decision is formally referred to as the outcome, and will be based on the balance of probability.

If it’s decided that misconduct did take place, and you were responsible, there will usually be a penalty imposed on you as a result. Penalties vary based on the kind of misconduct, its level of severity, and what exactly your involvement in it was. Your attitude during the meeting may also affect the penalty imposed.

Common penalties include:

• Receiving a warning letter.

• Making a formal agreement that you'll complete an online educational module related to the incident.

• Being required to pay a fine of between £30 and £200.

• Signing a written undertaking, which is a formal promise to be of good conduct in future, and follow the rules and regulations.

All these penalties are designed to improve the University and accommodation experience for everyone. The money from disciplinary fines is donated to charitable causes in and around the Sheffield area. Fines related to breaching the Smoke Free Policy go to the Sheffield Weston Park Cancer Charity (Registered Charity No. 509803). Other fines are either donated to other local charities, or go towards helping with Financial Support for other students.

There are also some other penalties. If you’ve damaged someone else’s property, you may need to pay them compensation. In serious cases, you could be excluded from all or part of University-owned or partnership accommodation. If the case requires a higher-level response, the case may be referred on to the Student Conduct & Appeals Office, to be dealt with under the University's discipline regulations.

You’ll receive an email notifying you of the outcome and any penalties within five working days of the final meeting. The outcome is not negotiable, so you can't argue with it, or ask for a different penalty to be given to you instead. However, if you think your outcome is unfair, there is a review and appeals process. All the information you need to do to request this is provided in your outcome email.

You’ll be given a set amount of time to carry out any actions you’ve been asked to take. If you don’t do them in the timeframe given, and you fail to provide a reasonable explanation for why not, you may have to attend a second disciplinary meeting, and it’s likely that additional penalties will be imposed.

Sometimes, the officers will need to share the outcome of the meeting, or other information, with other people:

• If you’re very distressed in the meeting, or if you share information that gives the officers concern for your welfare, they may need to speak to a Support Manager and ask them to reach out to you to offer some help.

• If the misconduct involved may have implications for your fitness to practise in your degree field, they may need to inform your Head of Department.

• If the misconduct has involved damage to University property, they'll need to inform the Contracts team so that you can be charged for any repairs needed. 

• If the misconduct was related to a possible crime, they may need to pass information to the police.

If you’ve been involved in an investigation in any way, it’s important to take the opportunity to learn from the experience. Make sure that you understand why your behaviour may have been considered misconduct, and what you need to do differently in future. If you’re repeatedly involved in misconduct, the penalties given to you will increase in seriousness. If your behaviour doesn’t change, you may even be asked to leave the accommodation.

There’s lots of help for preparing for a disciplinary meeting available online or in-person from the Students’ Union. This can set your mind at rest, and help you decide how to act going forward. Our other articles on The Regulations relating to the Discipline of Students and Your residence contract can also help you understand the rules you may have broken.

Writing a statement is optional, but it can make you feel calmer and more prepared for the meeting. If you know you’ll be anxious, or struggle to gather your thoughts in the moment, it’s a good way to make sure you can say everything you need to. 

This is a formal process, so it's important to engage with it politely and professionally. This means that using rude or abusive language, ignoring emails, pretending not to know information you probably do know, or generally failing to co-operate with the process may count against you. The process will continue regardless of whether you choose to engage with it. Overall, it’s always best to reply to emails and answer questions in any meetings. If your emotions get the better of you and you say something that you don’t mean, just acknowledge this, apologise, and move on.

If you refuse to answer questions, don’t attend meetings, or otherwise try to avoid the process, this may count against you. It also means you lose your opportunity to explain your version of events, or to help the officers understand why you acted as you did. Being evasive or lying won’t benefit you in the long run, and may itself count as additional misconduct. You can still be given penalties even if you refuse to attend a meeting; you’ll just lose the opportunity to give your version of events, so the penalties may actually be more severe than if you'd attended and explained your actions.

If there are gaps or mistakes in the evidence, you should say so. If you were involved, but other people weren’t, step up and explain this to allow them to be removed from the process. It’s the right thing to do, and it will make things easier in the long run.

The disciplinary process is designed to include learning opportunities to help you reflect on your behaviour, so you can improve it going forward. If you’ve reflected on what happened and now regret your actions, it’s important to say so. If you choose not to provide this information, we won’t be able to take this into account.

If you don’t understand how you breached your residence contract, just say so. You won’t be penalised for asking questions, and through discussing them, you can improve your understanding of the situation, and make sure you don’t find yourself in this position again.