Universities Australia surveyed more than 43,000 students finding:
- One in six students have experienced sexual harassment since starting university and one in 12 in the past 12 months
- One in 20 students have been sexually assaulted since starting university
- Only one in 30 students who were sexually harassed made a formal complaint
- Only one in 20 students who were sexually assaulted made a formal complaint
- Half of the students surveyed knew nothing or very little about the formal reporting process for harassment or assault
NTEU National President Dr Alison Barnes said the results of the survey are shocking.
“I feel heartbroken for the students who have been failed by universities and our Federal Government,” Dr Barnes said.
“It is sadly unsurprising that student safety and knowledge of formal complaint processes has become collateral damage in the war the Federal Government has waged against universities.
“Our universities are in crisis. The Morrison Government has cut funding per student place, arbitrarily excluded universities from JobKeeper and implemented a failed casual conversion scheme which saw a pitiful number of casual staff converted to full time work.
“Sadly, staff who had responsibility for student support services were included in the 35,000 jobs lost at public universities last year. They have not been replaced.
“We also know that many of those remaining – including casual and sessional staff – are being increasingly relied upon to provide support to their students, but often without the appropriate training or support. 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. While the report shows the impact on students, we also know from our own research and member accounts that university staff are also subjected to online harassment. Universities need to set up systems for reporting and supporting both students and staff who experience such forms of harassment.
“Survivors of harassment and assault are forced to carry a significant burden for the rest of their lives. This thought is only made more harrowing when you consider universities and the Federal Government could have done more to prevent sexual violence in university communities but failed to act.
“One of the main recommendations from the survey is to adequately resource sexual harassment and sexual assault response and prevention strategies. Yet, we have been here before. We have previously called upon Government to establish a round table on sexual harassment in universities, with all stakeholders, to establish a national, unified plan for our universities. Yet the Government dismissed that at the time.
“We also note the Government’s own commissioned report on sexual harassment, the Respect
