Victims/survivors of sexual assault/harassment report university policies, “were inaccurate” and “reporting mechanisms” slow

The findings are from the qualitative report in the new National Student Safety Survey, released by Universities Australia, yesterday.

The report, based on individual reports from 1835 people is part of the survey of 43 000 students at all UA members.

On the basis of individual responses, the Report, created by the well-regarded Social Research Centre states, “for many, the trauma of the original incident of sexual harassment and/or sexual assault was compounded by their university’s mishandling of their report, discouraging victims/survivors from pursuing the reporting process to it its conclusion.”

The statistical component of the survey includes statistics  on sexual harassment/ assault “in a university context.” It reports that over their entire enrolments,

* 16 per cent of students were harassed

* 4.5 per cent were assaulted

* 16.8 per cent of students sexually harassed sought “support or assistance” increasing to 25.5 per cent of  sexual assault victims

Methodology changes prevent comparisons with the previous national survey.

However  the SRC reports “overall trends” across both are consistent and that the “risk of assault among Australian university students is broadly consistent with national data.”

The national report was followed yesterday by individual universities releasing their specific stats, accompanied by statements that the results are unacceptable but that they have and are working hard and will work harder to stop assaults and harassment.

Which is pretty much what university leaders said when the first report was released (CMM August 2 2017).