Catalyst for change: Protecting students from hate crime, sexual violence and online harassment in higher education

The OfS-funded Catalyst programme has invested £4.7 million in 119 projects led by higher education providers to explore new approaches to protecting students from hate crime, sexual violence and online harassment.

An important aspect of the projects is to support learning, exchange and dissemination of effective practice, and help establish ‘what works’ in safeguarding students so that the whole higher education sector can benefit.

• Round one focused on tackling sexual misconduct and involved 63 one-year projects
• Round two supported work tackling hate crime and online harassment and involved 45 one-year projects
• Round three supported work to address hate crime and incidents on the grounds of religion or belief and involved a network of 11 projects.

Our overview of the programme

Evaluation

We commissioned Advance HE to carry out an external evaluation of the programme of 119 student safeguarding projects. 

External evaluation - rounds one and two

The Safeguarding Catalyst Fund projects evaluation: Thematic report (round one) was published in autumn 2018. This looked at the themes emerging from the first round of the Catalyst safeguarding projects. 

External evaluation - round three

Advance HE's final report concludes round three of the funding programme. It highlights emerging practice and identifies knowledge gaps in work carried out by providers to address religious-based hate crime and harassment.