Make it easier to prove sex assault, demand students at Cambridge

CAMBRIDGE University is considering lowering the burden of proof for disciplinary cases, after claims that sexual predators are getting away with their crimes.

Currently the university relies on the criminal standard of proof, beyond reasonable doubt, for all disciplinary cases other than ones relating to fitness to study. But students have called for decisions to be based instead on the civil standard of proof, the balance of probabilities.

The University of Cambridge has previously admitted that it has a “significant problem” with sexual misconduct after receiving almost 200 complaints in a matter of months.

Over 800 students have signed an open letter to the vice-chancellor, Prof Stephen Toope, which said that “upholding a criminal standard of proof actively discourages survivors and victims of sexual harassment, rape and assault from engaging with the disciplinary procedure”.

Students said that changing the disciplinary system “will give survivors and victims of sexual assault more confidence to access it”. They added that proving cases of sexual assault beyond reasonable doubt “places undue stress” on complainants and that the criminal standard of proof “places undue burden on someone who has experienced a traumatic event”. “By requiring cases to be proven ‘beyond reasonable doubt,’ the university is implying that there is unlikely to be consequences for perpetrators in disciplinary cases pertaining to sexual misconduct, unless the survivor goes to the police,” the letter said.

According to a consultation document released, the university’s discipline review committee is proposing a change to the proof required for misconduct claims. “It is noted that there has been an open letter to the vicechancellor from the Cambridge University Students’ Union’s Women’s Officer requesting, amongst other things, a change in the standard of proof for student disciplinary cases.

“The Review Committee on Student Discipline are of the view that if the student body wants the university to use the balance of probability as the standard of proof when considering allegations of student misconduct then this should be accepted.”

♦ Eleven students have been suspended from Warwick University after making jokes about rape and racist comments in an online conversation.

‘Changing the system will give survivors and victims of sexual assault more confidence to access it’