Most students experience gendered violence on campus

Today the Human Rights Commission launched its national report on sexual assault and sexual harassment at Australian Universities. The results revealed that 51% of students experience sexual harassment at university, 63% of these are women. The report also revealed that 6.9% of students experienced some form of sexual assault or rape.

“Today students will finally see their experiences reflected in the data, universities can no longer bury their heads in the sand and ignore sexual assault and harassment.” Said NUS Women’s Officer, Abby Stapleton “The prevalence of gendered violence on campus has become so great, universities need to fess up and acknowledge that they have failed to protect students, and allowed rape culture to manifest on campus.”

The report indicated that universities are a huge part of the problem, with 87% of victims of sexual assault not lodging a complaint to their university. This was strongly attributed to ineffective university reporting mechanisms. Students were also more likely to seek support off campus rather than ask their university for help.

“Students have no idea who to report to, and often when they do report they are encouraged not to pursue the case. Lecturers, tutors and residential advisors were often the first people to be notified by a student of an assault, most of these staff members receive no vicarious trauma training and are ill equipped to respond compassionately.” Said Stapleton

In light of the report release NUS is calling for universities to:

1. Establish a Federal complaints and compliance mechanism
2. Organise sexual ethics and managing vicarious trauma training for all university and college staff and students
3. Create and improve policies and procedures so that they are survivor-centric with clear disciplinary consequences for offenders
4. Create trauma-informed support services for students, including an on-campus trauma-specialist counsellor
5. Maintain accurate and comprehensive records of reports

Students fought for this survey, sexual assault on or off campus will always be a student issue and university inaction has allowed gendered violence to flourish. NUS and Women’s collectives across NSW are organising a protest against rape on August 2nd. NUS is calling for all students to attend and take a stand against the institutional failings of Australian Universities.
Sophie Johnston National President | National Union of Students