Report transgressive behaviour

How the helpline works

Who can contact the Helpline?

Any student, employee or campus visitor who has experienced or witnessed inappropriate behaviour within the context of the VUB or on campus can contact the Helpline. You can also contact us if you have questions or concerns about your own behaviour.

What does the Helpline do?

We listen to your story and provide information and advice to help you on your way. You stay in charge and decide which steps you want to take. You can take your time to decide. Within the Helpline the following steps are possible.

Information, advice and support

We listen to your story and give you information and advice. Also about possible further help or support. Managers can also contact us for advice on dealing with inappropriate behaviour within their team.

Restorative steps

• We can help you in case you'd like to engage in conversation with the other person involved yourself.
• When you'd like someone else to talk to the other person involved, we can either take on this role or search together to find the most suitable person to do so. This could be a manager, for example.
• We can organise and guide a mediation between you and the other person, if everyone involved agrees.

Referal to further investigation

The Report It Helpline does not investigate or assess your report. Do you wish for your report to be investigated further, or for the university to consider taking measures and sanctions? In that case we will refer you to the disciplinary procedures of the VUB. For staff, there’s also the external service for prevention and protection at work, which can independently analyze the situation and give the university advice about their approach.

You can count on our guidance during these procedures. However, we have no further role in these procedures and have no impact on the progress or outcome.

Some forms of inappropriate behavior are punishable by law. In those cases, we recommend that you also file a complaint with the police.

How do we register a report?

We keep track of all reports in a central register. A report can also be registered anonymously. It’s possible that you only want your report to be registered without any further consequences or actions. In that case, you can always contact us again later to review your options.

Want to know more about how we handle your data? Our privacy statement contains all the details about our data policy.

How do we handle repeated reports?

In case we receive multiple or repeated reports, the Helpline can take on a more (pro)active role. This means multiple separate reports about the same situation or person. Depending on the nature of the reports, the role of the Helpline differs in each situation. For example, it’s possible we signal an issue (anonymously) to a higher hierarchical level. It’s up to them to decide about further actions.

Want to report externally?

Staff members can also contact the external service for prevention and protection at work for reports about transgressive behaviour in the workplace. The prevention advisor psychosocial aspects will help you.

Students and staff can make use of the Flemish Helpline for transgressive behaviour for reports about transgressive behaviour in an educational context. They offer free advice and guidance.

Prevention and evaluation

The Report It Helpline analyses the number of reports and the perceived trends every calendar year based on the central register. This analysis gives shape to the preventive policy of the VUB. We report the anonymised data of the Helpline to the Student Council, the Committee for Prevention and Protection at Work (CPBW) and to the Board of Directors.

Every year we conduct an anonymous survey with everyone who has used the Helpline in the past calender year. Based on the outcome, we are able to optimise the Helpline.