Disclosing All Your Criminal Convictions

Offer holders and enrolling students should disclose convictions, cautions, admonitions, reprimands, final warnings, bind over orders or similar involving one or more of the following:

• Offences of violence
• Sexual offences
• Offences of harassment/stalking
• Hate crime
• Offences of terrorism
• Offences of theft and other forms of dishonesty
• Offences of involvement with controlled substances and/or firearms/explosives (drug offences only involving possession and not leading to a custodial sentence do not need to be disclosed)
• Offences of arson and/or wilful damage to property
• Offences involving the misuse of information and communications technology (computer misuse)

Offer holders and enrolling students are also required to declare any pending criminal charges which fall within one of the above categories.

You only need to tell us about relevant, unspent criminal convictions in the categories noted above.

Convictions that are 'spent' (as defined by the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974) or will be spent at the point of starting the course of study do not need to be declared unless your programme of study is exempt from the Protecting Vulnerable Groups (PVG) scheme.

If you have declared a criminal conviction or pending criminal charge to us in response to the request made by our Admissions team when you accepted your offer to study with us, then we will have this information recorded and you do not need to declare this again at enrolment.

All offer holders who have accepted their place to study with us and all enrolled students must declare any relevant criminal convictions and pending charges (irrespective of their mode of learning or programme of study).

EU and International Nationals

EU and International students or offer holders should also declare any criminal convictions or pending criminal charges where they involve an offence similar to those set out above. If you are unsure, you can contact us at confidential@uws.ac.uk and a member of University staff will contact you for further information.

Any conviction involving an offence similar to those set out above, made by a court outside the UK, which would not be considered as spent under the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 is considered to be relevant and should be disclosed.

Applicants to courses which involve contact with vulnerable people, such as teaching, social work and nursing courses will be required to register with the Protecting Vulnerable Groups (PVG) scheme. These programmes are exempt from the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974.

There is a separate process for this which is managed by the School you have applied to or by UCAS and is separate from the criminal conviction process described here.

If you are a student or offer holder and you have pending criminal charges against you then you should also tell us about this if they relate to one of the categories above. This also applies if you are making an application from a non-UK country.

The University aims to maintain a safe environment for everyone and so we must take appropriate steps to protect our students, staff and other members of the University community. To allow us to do this, we collect and record information on any offences committed by offer holders and our students as well as any ongoing criminal investigations or proceedings. This allows us to carry out a risk assessment to be carried out in line with our Criminal Convictions and Charges Procedure.

If an offer holder or enrolled student indicates they have a criminal conviction or have a pending criminal charge a member of University staff will contact you to verify this is accurate and is a relevant disclosure in terms of our requirements. Once this has been confirmed any relevant disclosure will be handled in line with the process set out in our Criminal Convictions and Charges Procedure.

A disclosure will not result in an automatic withdrawal of an offer or exclusion from the University. The nature of the offence and all relevant information pertaining to the conviction or charge will then be considered as part of a risk assessment so that we can decide whether there is any unacceptable risk of harm to the wider University community, and/or make adjustments to your programme of study so that any risks can be mitigated for both the student/offer holder and the University community.

If a student is found guilty of an offence in a criminal court or is subject to a criminal investigation the University may take disciplinary action against that student in respect of the same matter. This will happen where it relates to deciding whether or not the student is a fit and proper person to continue as a member of the University or to reside in University accommodation.

There may be circumstances where it is appropriate for the student to be suspended from the University until the outcome of any criminal proceedings or investigation is known.

You can find out more about this in our Procedure for Student Discipline and our Student Suspension Procedure.

All enrolled students are expected to declare criminal convictions to us in line with our Criminal Convictions and Charges Procedure and have an ongoing obligation and responsibilities to update us as to material changes throughout the year. If the University receives information from a third party that an individual who has accepted an offer to study with us or enrolled student has been responsible for a criminal offence we will contact the student or applicant to get further information. If the information received is correct the Criminal Convictions and Charges Procedure will be followed.

If an offer holder or enrolled student has failed to disclose details of a criminal conviction or proceedings this may be treated as a disciplinary matter under the University Code of Discipline (see Chapter 5 of the UWS Regulatory Framwork).