A Guardian investigation has shown elite universities in Britain are failing to monitor the extent of sexual violence against students.
One in five Russell Group universities told the Guardian they do not have specific guidelines for students on how to report such allegations in confidence or as a formal complaint to the institution or to the police. We also found less than half of these institutions record all allegations of rapes, sexual assaults and sexual harassment reported to them by students.
Anecdotally, many students say they have experienced sexual assault or harassment in their day-to-day lives. These aren’t always incidents where the police get involved – often, it’s a grope in the nightclub or a catcall gone too far.
To get an idea of how widespread the problem is at British universities, we’d like to hear from people who have experienced sexual assault or harassment at university. Was there support in place at your campus?
We’d also like to hear from students about whether they feel their university did enough to tackle sexual abuse at their university.
According to the law, all victims of sexual offences are entitled to anonymity. Please consider this in your contribution. If you would like to remain anonymous, we suggest when using the form below to indicate whether you are happy for it to be published in a wider editorial piece.
If you are looking for support around an experience(s) of sexual violence you can contact Rape Crisis England & Wales on 0808 802 9999 (lines are open 12noon-2.30pm & 7pm-9.30pm every day) or find your local centre here. If you’re in Scotland the number is 08088 01 03 02 (lines are open 6pm to midnight every day), and you can find your local centre here.
