De Montfort University Leicester (DMU) has signed a pledge to do all it can to end bullying and discrimination.
The university's Vice Chancellor, Professor Dominic Shellard and its Chancellor, Baroness Doreen Lawrence, put their names to Stonewall UK's #NoBystanders campaign.
#NoBystanders is Stonewall's campaign to end bullying and discrimination by empowering others to challenge all forms of bullying when they can.
In November 2015, YouGov polling for Stonewall revealed that in the last year one in five people admit to making offensive remarks about LGBT people. It showed that in one month 30 per cent of people said they had heard offensive remarks about LGBT people, but 63 per cent didn't do anything about it.
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The pledge, in full, read:
"De Montfort University (DMU) will never be bystanders to bullying and teasing language. If we hear it we will call it out and if we can, we will stop it. We promise to stand up for fairness, kindness and never be bystanders."
Nick Corrigan, Director of the Personal and Professional Development Programme at Stonewall UK, said: "By signing this pledge, DMU is making a commitment to joining many institutions and schools in standing up to bullying.
"DMU is one of the most dedicated champions in the LGBT sphere, and there is a whole army of people here who are creating change."
The signing of the pledge followed news that DMU had risen 17 places in the annual Stonewall Top 100 Employers, which lists the best performing employers on Stonewall's Workplace Equality Index 2016, an annual audit of workplace culture for lesbian, gay, bi and trans staff.
Jo Cooke, Executive Director of Student and Academic Services and Associate Chief Operating Officer, said: "This is about stamping out bullying, not just against LGBT people but people of all protected characteristics.
"At DMU we take this issue very seriously and we would like all staff and students to sign the pledge. We have recently been awarded the Race Charter Mark and have gone up 17 places on the Stonewall index of employers, both things we are very pleased about."
Posted on Wednesday 16 March 2016