Reclaim The Campus is a student (and recent graduate) led campaign focusing on issues of sexual harassment and violence in Higher Education in the UK. We research and identify policy issues across UK universities to delve into and confront the question of whether they are failing to protect and support their students and staff. Our campaign has evolved in ways we never would have imagined and we’ve been able to connect with so many people and similar organisations, including H.A.R.P, that have taken our combined interest in this topic into a passion to continue to increase pressure on universities to ensure that they have appropriate policy in place regarding sexual misconduct.
Students are a particularly high risk group when it comes to sexual assault and violence due to a range of factors including moving away from home without a support network, disparities in levels of sex education and conversations around consent, and the amplification of negative themes like rape culture and misogyny. However, as the 2016 UUK ‘Changing The Culture Report’ points out, 48% of young people participate in higher education by the time they are 30 and there are 2.3 million students enrolled in UK universities. Therefore, whilst these are issues affecting people across the country and world, as places of education, universities are uniquely well positioned to act as a leveling field and to correct the lack of knowledge or harmful ideas that students may hold. This goes to show the responsibility of universities to take action against this and instill no-tolerance to these crimes. However, with this in mind, and the fact that in the UK we don’t have the Title IX law that prohibits sex-based violence in education institutions, are universities doing enough to tackle an issue that is thriving on campuses?
Well prominently, most universities don’t actually have a specific sexual misconduct policy. In fact, a 2020 Tortoise Media report found that only 11 out of the 60 biggest institutions have a specific policy on sexual misconduct. This number is significantly low given the outlined weight and scale of the issue. Many make some mention of sexual harassment in their harassment policies or student conduct policy but many important aspects of ensuring that students are protected and supported get neglected. For example, without a policy including a clear definition of sexual misconduct and the sanctions that a perpetrator will face, how can it be ensured that universities will correctly identify and sanction those who have committed harassment or an assault? Also, if sexual misconduct is simply mentioned in a ‘Dignity in Study’ policy for example, how can it be ensured that universities have the appropriate support and resources in place for sexual assault victims? If it isn’t required for all nationwide universities to have specific sexual misconduct policy in place, how can it be ensured that individual universities are making effective judgments in terms of reporting procedures? Ultimately, the result is that many universities are failing in these areas and incidents either aren’t getting reported or aren’t getting dealt with properly, meaning the culture and cases both persist.
The thing is, the policy guidelines do exist but just aren’t being implemented by universities, leaving the question of why? A huge barrier to any progress in reforming sexual misconduct policy to better protection and safety for students, is the wider and deeply embedded culture of the ‘normality’ of instances like this, which seems to be intertwined with institutions’ organisational silencing of survivors and prioritising of reputation over student wellbeing. Take for example, instances like a spate of assaults carried out by members of the same student society, or a former student rapist walking free from court. Take also years of anti-rape protests at Warwick University with students starting their own hashtag because no one was listening.
Though, this only instills further importance in universities taking action to prevent the perpetuation of this problem. It means that breaking down this barrier by taking action and refusing to continue to dismiss or hide the issue could feed into something much bigger. As we’ve recognised across our campaign, ineffective sexual misconduct policy and procedures at universities is intertwined with ideas about consent, gender based violence, intersectional identity and rape culture in our society as a whole. Of course, ensuring that universities have sufficient and effective sexual misconduct policy in place is only one part of this bigger picture. Effective implementation of the policy would be necessary too. However, it would begin to contribute towards the dismantling of structures that allow students to remain unsafe.
So yes, there is a long way to go to ensure students are protected from sexual harassment, as it is deeply rooted in complex factors. But no, universities are not doing enough to push this process to take place. That’s why we need to continue to put pressure on them to face the reality of their unsafe campuses and take action by providing specialist support, effective reporting procedures, transparent disciplinary processes and a willingness to put student wellbeing before reputation.
You can read more about this topic and our work and join us in doing so at:
https://www.reclaimthecampus.com/
And @reclaimthecampus on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn
