Should I secretly record a meeting to prove I'm being discriminated against?

Question

I'm a PhD student at a university in the UK. The head and director of graduate studies at my department are trying to get me removed from the department.

Almost all of this is going on over my head, but my supervisor has told me about a number of meetings and emails that have gone on about this topic.

On the basis of what my supervisor tells me, along with my own previous interactions with the head of department, I feel quite sure that what they are doing is discriminatory against me due to a disability that I have.

However, since I am not included in any of the emails etc. about this, I have almost no evidence. This makes it very difficult to defend myself against what they are doing and saying.

While my supervisor is on my side and doesn't want me to be kicked out, he has a very poor understanding of disability issues and discrimination. His number one priority, of course, is protecting himself - ultimately it looks really bad for him to have a student that the head of department warned him would be trouble and ends up getting kicked out.

So he will tell me about these things in person, but not by email - if I ask him anything by email, he asks me to come to his office to discuss it.

Should I secretly record a meeting with him where I bring this up so that if it comes down to it, I have some evidence that the action is discriminatory?

Answer 1

No.

Such action should be the very, very last resort, and only undertaken if you have taken legal advice on whether it is advisable to do so.

As a UK student, you should have support available to you from the Student Union, which will almost certainly include disability representation.

The Student Union will be able to advise you on how to proceed on this matter, and possible provide you with a third party representative to join you at any meetings you have.

Also, you mention emails that exist 'about you.' You are within your rights to request these to see what they say by making a freedom of information request. Again, seek advice first before undertaking this action.

Answer 2

(Originally, this was a comment: I don't know that much about the UK legal system and describe the situation in Germany. However, employment and anti-discrimination law has a good chance to be similar throughout EU).

In Germany, secret recording of such a meeting with your supervisor/boss would be a legal reason for your employer to terminate your contract without notice. There's a court decision in a workplace harrassment lawsuit judging that secret recording was an unnecessary violation of the employer's rights in case of a meeting where confidentiality is usually assumed - a witness (see below) would have been an adequate and legal alternative.
With regard to anti-discrimination law, I'd be very careful not to undermine your credibility by a secret recording - that may severely hamper your standing with regards to showing credible indication of discrimination.

So if your university actually wants to get rid of you, you secretly recording a meeting would be the best possible thing for them.

Instead, bring a trustworthy witness to the meeting, e.g. someone from staff council or maybe the university anti-dicrimination office has someone (or, of course, a lawyer). That also has the advantage that these people should have experience with the issues at hand and it is actually their proper job to take care of such conflicts.

• You can also ask for a (verbatim) transcript to be written or the meeting to be recorded - recording is fine if it is agreed on. Of course that would not be secret.
• You can write a transcript yourself (taking notes in the open or recoring your memory immediately after the meeting) and then send it to the other parties. That gives them a possibility to object to protocol statements they don't agree on. The point is that at the end of this process, you have a written document that all parties agree on and which can be used legally.
  You then also have a paper-trail of what statements the other parties did not agree with.

Answer 3

I have a comment, but it's too long to be a comment, so I'll record it in the format of an answer. But this is not an answer in the true sense of the word.

If you were asking about this for the U.S., I would say: you could file a Department of Education civil rights complaint under Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act. You would not need a recording in order to file a successful complaint. When the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) investigates a complaint, it asks the educational institution for information and documentation, and it conducts interviews with key parties. You could describe in your complaint the various things you were told. OCR would follow up and decide what documents it wants to see and whom it wants to interview.

I don't know about secret recordings even in the U.S., in the university setting. I do know that there are rules about this, defined state by state, for kindergarten through 12th grade. In my state of New York, for example, secret recordings aren't allowed. However, you always have the right to record a meeting, as long as you do it openly. However, in some states, you have to inform the school a certain amount of time in advance.

When filing a disability discrimination complaint, it is helpful to outline, unemotionally, the harm caused by the discrimination.

I am sorry I don't have any information specific to the UK. Everything I wrote is about the U.S. I am contributing that information in the hopes that it will give you a starting point for finding out what your options are in the UK.

You need to start reading your university's policies and procedures. There should be clues and pointers there to what recourse a student has in your situation.

Answer 4

Simply put, NO (caps intended since I do not like seeing people go to jail) unless you receive credible advice from an attorney (or Barrister where you are in the UK).

For example, California Law Penal Code § 632, enacted under the California Invasion of Privacy Act, makes it illegal for an individual to monitor or record a "confidential communication". This is true even where the communication is carried on among the parties in the presence of one another or by means of a telegraph, telephone, or other device. Put another way, California is known as a "two-party" state, which means that recordings are not allowed unless all parties to the conversation consent to the recording.

Although it may make sense to collect evidence of wrong doing, remember this is the law and is not intedned to make sense!