Sexual misconduct still rife in Australian universities

Some 5 per cent of Australian students have been sexually assaulted since starting university, and just 5 per cent of victims formally complained – with many unaware of reporting mechanisms at their institutions.

A Universities Australia (UA) survey of almost 44,000 students has found that sexual assault and harassment remain rife in the sector almost five years after a Human Rights Commission report put the issue under the spotlight.

The National Student Safety Survey, UA’s second major exploration of the issue, found that one in six students had experienced sexual harassment during their time at university – half of them during the previous year – with vanishingly few lodging formal complaints.

Half of the respondents knew little or nothing about the reporting processes despite efforts by universities and student groups to promote these mechanisms.

UA chair John Dewar said the findings were “distressing, disappointing and confronting. Almost half our student population has experienced sexual harassment at least once in their lifetime…and 1.1 per cent have been sexually assaulted in the past 12 months.

“We must continue working hard to prevent sexual harassment and sexual assault, and eliminate the destructive attitudes that foster it within our universities.”

Professor Dewar said that while sexual abuse continued to plague university communities, the problem stretched well beyond university gates. While “general campus areas” were the spaces where students were most likely to encounter harassment, accounting for 43 per cent of reported incidents, most assaults occurred elsewhere.

Hospitality venues such as clubs, bars and societies – many of them not university-affiliated – were the next most prominent venues for attacks, accounting for 26 per cent of reported incidents. Another 25 per cent occurred in residential colleges or student accommodation, and 18 per cent at private homes.

Gender diverse students and sexual minorities were at significantly greater risk than all other groups of being sexually harassed or assaulted, with Indigenous Australians, students with disabilities and those from culturally diverse backgrounds also abused at relatively high rates.

But UA’s report points out that the findings are consistent with the “lifetime prevalence” of both harassment and assault, as measured by the Australian Bureau of Statistics. “Gender and age significantly determine the risk of sexual assault, such that young women are among those more likely to have such experiences, both generally and within university contexts,” the report says.

“There may be some settings within university contexts that are more conducive to sexual harassment, whether among students or in the dynamic of staff and student supervisory arrangements. Previous international research…demonstrated the extent and impacts of sexual harassment particularly on female postgraduates, who in many disciplines are predominantly supervised by male academics.”

The report says “localised university contexts” such as residential colleges and social clubs “can be more – or less – conducive to sexual violence depending on the culture, attitudes and peer environment”.

The National Tertiary Education Union said job losses during the pandemic had exacerbated the problem, with student support staff among the thousands made redundant. “Many of those remaining…are being increasingly relied upon to provide support to their students, but often without the appropriate training or support,” said national president Alison Barnes. “This is a particular issue for our casual and sessional academic staff who now do the majority of teaching.

“Another Covid impact has been through the move to online delivery of teaching and the increased instances of online harassment. We…know from our own research and member accounts that university staff are also subjected to online harassment.”

john.ross@timeshighereducation.com