Inviting an external speaker

Speaker Protocol

External speakers play an important role in University life, giving members of our community an opportunity to have access to a broad range of ideas and opinions and supporting our students to make their own contribution to the University, which flourishes when new ideas are generated and different viewpoints are created. The University has a duty to, and is committed to, promoting academic freedom, freedom of speech, and equality and diversity, and must ensure that external speakers invited to a University event or activity, including those of the Students’ Union and Faith Centre, promote these values and remain within the law.   

Further information can be found in the Speaker Protocol (.pdf), which sits within the Code of Practice: Academic Freedom and Freedom of Speech.

Your responsibilities

For all University-led activities where a speaker risk assessment is deemed necessary, as an activity owner, you are required to:

• Complete the essential training prior to commencing actions as an activity owner. Before notifying the University about an external speaker that you would like to invite to an event, you are required to complete the Speaker Protocol Moodle module.
• Complete and submit the online notification and risk assessment. The External Speaker Notification Form, which includes the Speaker Risk Assessment, can be found in your Speaker Code of Practice Moodle module dashboard. 

Students’ Union-led activities are risk reviewed by the Students’ Union, who will determine if the activity is deemed low or high risk.  High risk activities are referred by the Students’ Union for risk review.  

15-day notice period

In order to allow sufficient time for your external speaker notification to be reviewed, it’s important that you submit the External Speaker Notification Form no fewer than 15 working days prior to your event. When submitting the external speaker notification form, you’ll be asked to complete the Speaker Risk Assessment and, depending on the risk rating outcome, the notification may be referred to the University for a risk review.  You must await the outcome of the review before finalising arrangements with your external speaker. 

Information for external speakers

We’ve created a webpage for you to share with your external speaker which includes all of the policy documents you should share with them prior to your event, as well as some helpful information.  

Booking a room

Information can be found in the SU’s Event Toolkit.