STUDENT EXPERIENCE AND WELLBEING
Anastasia Powell Associate Professor, RMIT University, Co-author of the NSSS 2021 reports
Sexual Harassment and Assault in University Contexts
O
n the 23rd March 2022, Universities Australia launched two reports into sexual harassment and sexual assault experienced by tertiary students in university contexts. The research included a national survey of students enrolled in 28 member institutions during 2021, as well as qualitative responses from many victim/survivors of sexual harassment and assault. It was funded under Universities Australia’s Respect. Now. Always. initiative, and built upon a legacy of work to address sexual harm in university contexts including the 2017 Change the Course report by the Australian Human Rights Commission.
One of the key findings from our 2021 National Student Safety Survey (NSSS) report is that one in three university students (30.6%) have experienced sexual assault at least once in their lifetime (Heywood et al., 2022). The survey further found that one in 20 (4.5%) had been sexually assaulted in a university context since starting their studies. Sexual harassment was more common, with one in six students (16.1%) experiencing these harms since starting their studies. Overall, women, transgender and non-binary students were much more likely to have experienced sexual harassment or sexual assault in a university context.
Importantly, the research acknowledged that ‘university contexts’ are not only places specific to physical campuses, but include other places both off campus and online where university students live, learn and socialise together. Unfortunately, student accommodation and residences were commonly reported by students as the setting where their most impactful experience of sexual assault took place. Indeed, of those students who disclosed information about their most impactful experience of sexual assault in a university context, one in four (25.3%) said that it occurred in a student accommodation or residence setting (Heywood et al., 2022). The other most common settings, were clubs and society events and spaces (one in four, 25.8%) as well as private homes or residences (one in six, 18.4%). In our qualitative research with over 1,800 students, many further described the circumstances of sexual assault in student accommodation or residence settings. These ranged from assaults by Residential Advisors (RAs) or peer leaders, to those by fellow students at residential colleges, to assaults in other student accommodation settings (Nisbet et al., 2022, p.16). For some of these students, when they tried to
20 www.apsaa.org.au