Harris plan to end ‘epidemic’ of sex assaults in our colleges

A ‘zero tolerance’ policy to tackle the ‘epidemic’ of rape and sexual assaults in Irish colleges and universities has been launched by the Minister for Further Education.

A recent survey of 6,000 NUIG students found that two-thirds of students had been sexually harassed by the third year of college.

Yesterday, Minister Simon Harris announced a four-step plan to stamp out sexual assault on thirdlevel campuses.

Each college will have to publishtheir own action plan, which will be monitored by the Department.

Funding penalties will be considered for institutions that fail to comply, Mr Harris said.

National surveys and a research project specifically on sexual misconduct in campuses will also be compiled.

It has been 18 years since Ireland carried out the first ever national survey to assess sexual abuse and violence in Ireland, known as the SAVI report [Sexual Abuse and Violence in Ireland].

‘I want to be really clear; I have no interest whatsoever in glossy documents or box-ticking exercises when it comes to sexual harassment,’ Minister Harris said.

‘There is a real epidemic in our country, quite frankly, when it comes to issues regarding consent and sexual violence. We need to get really serious about this as a country. In the third-level sector, in particular, we need to take action.

‘Parents need to know their children are safe when they go to college, so best practice must apply across the board. Best practice has to be the only practice and it has to become the national norm,’ the Minister said.

Mr Harris said that universities will be held accountable if they fail to comply with the policy. ‘Firstly,

Penalties: Minister Simon Harris all universities and third-level institutions will be required to publish an action plan on their own policies in their own institution,’ he said.

‘Secondly, the Higher Education Authority will be mandated by the Department to monitor the implementation of the framework. It’s not good enough to say, “ah yeah, we are doing that”.

‘We need to clearly monitor and publish the implementation of the framework so that we can measure progress.

‘Thirdly, we need to carry out an annual National Survey of staff and students so that we can year-onyear monitor the experiences of students and of up staff working in third-level institutions.

‘The fourth thing, I’m conscious that there’s a need to capture more information in this regard. This is an area that hasn’t been covered by other reports like SAVI.

‘So, fourthly I’m going to condition a research project specifically on sexual harassment on third-level institutions,’ added Mr Harris.

The funding third-level institutions receive from the Department of Further Education may be cut for colleges and universities that fail to comply with the programme.

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‘Parents must know children are safe’