Our mission
Using a right should never put a student’s at risk.
StudentSafe Europe exists to make safe reporting, independent decisions and real remedies an ordinary part of higher education across Europe.
Purpose
Why we exist
Universities ask students to raise concerns, to complain when something goes wrong and to appeal decisions they believe are unfair. Those procedures only work if using them is safe. Where the person a concern is about also assesses, supervises, recommends or funds the student, the risk of speaking up can outweigh the right to do so.
Our Statute defines the mission precisely: to promote higher-education systems in which a student can legitimately report an irregularity, seek protection, file a complaint or appeal, or use other procedural rights without unreasonable risk to their grades, mentoring, recommendations, progression, funding, research position, mobility or future academic and professional career.Statute, Art. 7
We pursue that mission through research, a public methodology, policy work and cooperation — not by judging individual cases. Our work concerns systems and rules, not people.
What the mission is not
StudentSafe Europe is not a court, police service, inspectorate, disciplinary body or public authority, and does not take on their powers. We do not establish anyone’s liability, adjudicate accusations or assess individuals.Art. 12
Values
The principles we are bound by.
Listed in Article 6 of our Statute. They govern every finding, publication and campaign.
- Dignity and academic future of students
- The starting point: a student should not have to trade their education for their rights.
- Independence and impartiality
- Organisational, financial and editorial independence from universities, public bodies, political parties, donors, interest groups and commercial actors.
- Research integrity
- Findings are not fabricated, distorted or bent to a campaign. Conflicts of interest are declared and managed.
- Verifiable sources
- Public findings should be traceable to the source document and, where possible, to the specific provision.
- Transparent methodology
- How we analyse rules is published, versioned and open to challenge.
- Proportionate conclusions
- Claims stay within what the evidence supports.
- Right of reply and correctability
- Those a finding concerns can respond; established errors are corrected without undue delay and marked publicly.
- Protection of personal data
- We collect as little personal data as possible and base research on public institutional documents.
- Open knowledge
- Methods, data and texts are published under open licences where possible.
- Health and wellbeing
- Psychological safety and dignity are part of a functioning academic community, not an extra.
- Facts, assessment and advocacy kept apart
- What a document says, how we assess it, and what we argue for are always distinguishable.
Independence
Funding never buys a conclusion.
Accepting a donation, grant, partnership or any other funding gives the funder no right to determine research conclusions, methodological assessments or individual findings, no right to approve publication in advance, and no right to stop publication of work produced independently and in line with the methodology. Funding conditions that conflict with independence are not accepted.Art. 41
The same rule applies to paid work: a fee for research, evaluation or expert assessment gives the client no right to influence the methodology, the findings or the content of a public statement, and cannot purchase a positive result.Art. 13
Anyone involved in our work must declare an actual or potential conflict of interest and step aside from the decision it concerns.Art. 40
Objectives
What we are working toward.
These are statutory objectives — the direction of our work, not a list of results already achieved.
What exists todayEffective protection mechanisms
Develop and strengthen mechanisms that protect students who use complaint, appeal, reporting, whistleblowing or other institutional procedures.
Protection from retaliation and conflicts of interest
Promote protection from retaliation, academic harm, undue influence and conflicts of interest connected with exercising legitimate rights.
Comparable minimum standards
Improve comparable minimum standards of student protection across the European Higher Education Area, respecting differences between national legal and institutional systems.
Research and comparative analysis
Research and compare published laws, statutes, regulations, codes, appeal and reporting procedures and other sources relevant to student protection.
Transparent methodologies
Develop, maintain and publish transparent methodologies for assessing protection mechanisms, including the StudentSafe Standard.
Fair procedures
Promote independent handling of complaints, effective recusal for conflicts of interest, reasonable deadlines, reasoned decisions, effective appeal and mechanisms to remedy academic harm.
Quality assurance
Promote the inclusion of student protection, psychological safety and academic wellbeing in higher-education quality-assurance systems.
Accessible rules
Make the rules that govern students’ rights and procedural position more accessible, understandable, verifiable and comparable.
European cooperation
Encourage international cooperation, open knowledge and European recommendations, guidelines and policies for safer and fairer higher education.
Access to qualified support
Over time, improve access to timely, independent and professionally grounded legal, psychological and other support for students exposed to academic retaliation — delivered only by qualified professionals and within the law.