Is your university doing enough to protect you from sexual harassment? Perhaps not, if a new investigation is anything to go by. According the National Union of Students' (NUS) recent report, only 51% of unis had policies which were relevant to sexual harassment.
In their latest audit, the NUS focused on lad culture on campuses, looking into the way sexual harassment, violence and discrimination was dealt with at 35 institutions and 20 student unions across the UK. The report found that only 47% of student unions had a clear procedure for reporting and dealing with sexual harassment while 41% admitted to using a third-party crime system for reporting these problems. While the news that majority of these universities don’t have systems in place is pretty damn bleak, it gets worse…
According to the report only one in ten institutions/student unions had a policy that referred to the displays of discriminatory and sexist material. Speaking to The Guardian, Susuana Amoah, the NUS women’s officer, said: 'We, the student movement and society as a whole, are no longer in a position where we can continue to allow the issues women face on campuses across the UK and beyond to be ignored.'
She went on to say, 'Yes, women can participate in education, work and social activities, but that doesn’t mean that these spaces are accessible to all women or that women are treated fairly and respectfully. In fact, harassment, violence and blatant discrimination can make education and other spaces inaccessible for many students, not just women.'
This investigative move by the NUS comes after a massive outcry from female students about the harassment they face on campus every day. It was only earlier this year that the Telegraph reported one in three female students were victims of sexual harassment or assault. But lad culture and sexism aren't just problems current students are facing, in fact this has been going on for ages. In a recent issue of the University of Kent’s student newspaper, an anonymous letter from an alumnus of the uni was published; detailing how they felt the university had let them down when they were a victim of rape there.
Crucially, the NUS are clear that they don't want their report just to state facts. Along with their audit they’ve recommended actions that should be put into place to help stop sexual discrimination. They’ve urged Universites UK and relevant organizations to create a national plan of action on how to tackle these problems of sexual abuse and lad culture. This includes defining exactly what sexual harrassment is and creating a point of contact as well as groups in each university that will be there to support victims if anything should happen to students on campus.
So with the NUS finally stepping up and making a stand, hopefully lad culture and sexual abuse not only to women but men as well can be stopped.
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This article originally appeared on The Debrief.