Cambridge hires sexual harassment adviser for students

CAMBRIDGE University is looking for its first full-time sexual assault and harassment adviser with a £38,000 salary.

The advertised role has been created in response to growing complaints by students about inappropriate physical contact, wolf whistles and jokes about rape. The adviser will offer “emotional and practical support to students following sexual harassment or assault”, run workshops, and work with rape counsellors and police.

The university said the appointment, which will sit within the university’s counselling service, aims to “bolster the advice and support available to a student” and reflect how seriously the university takes the issue.

A University of Cambridge spokesman said: “The university continuously and actively works to improve the prevention, response, support and investigation of all instances of harassment, hate crime and sexual misconduct.”

A Cambridge University Students’ Union survey found 77 per cent of respondents said they had experienced sexual harassment, 30 per cent had experienced sexual assault and that the majority of such assaults went unreported.