Prevent Policy
What is Prevent?
The Prevent duty requires all education providers ‘to help prevent the risk of people becoming terrorists or supporting terrorism’. This includes safeguarding learners from all kinds of extremist ideologies and radicalisation.
This applies to the events facilitated by the OU Students Association (Open SU) because of our relationship agreement with the Open University. The Prevent Duty is about safeguarding the welfare of OU students at Association events, including those of our society, and reporting any activity where it is felt that any student or group of students are at risk of being drawn into terrorism.
You can find the UK Government definition of extremism along with details of behaviour that could constitute extremism on the gov.uk website.
How we will comply with the Prevent duty
Events organised by students, associated with the OU Students Association, and outside of business as usual are within the scope of Prevent. This applies to events whether they are online or face to face, and on or off university premises.
As event organisers we recognise we have a responsibility when carrying out our voluntary roles to know what to do if we have a concern that might arise from conversations or activities that take place at our events and where we feel an individual could be at risk of being drawn into terrorism.
What we will do if we have a concern
We will pass any concerns we have onto Prevent-Coordinator@open.ac.uk with oustudentsvolunteer@open.ac.uk in copy. We will do this as soon as possible following any concerns being raised with us or following any instances of relevant behaviour.
When concerns are raised directly with us by email, this email will be shared with the above email addresses.
More information
Open University Prevent Principles
Prevent duty guidance: England and Wales (2023)
Prevent duty guidance: England, Scotland and Wales (2015)
Effective date: 9 November 2025
Last updated: 9 November 2025