Sexual abuse on campus has a serial nature, report claims

UNIVERSITIES are employing serial sex abusers, a report has found, after a series of interviews with women who had complained of harassment.

Research by The 1752 Group, a campaign lobby, and the University of Portsmouth found that staff who had inappropriate relationships with one student or junior colleague were likely to have behaved similarly with others, even dating a different student every year.

“Most interviewees had evidence that what they were experiencing constituted a pattern of behaviour for that staff member, whether grooming or dating a different student each year, or harassing, stalking and threatening multiple students and often other staff as well,” the report said.

Researchers interviewed 16 women who had experienced “sexual misconduct” at 14 universities and found that 12 of them had direct knowledge of other women targeted by the same member of staff. One staff member who was reported by an interviewee had lost their job following an inquiry.

However, six said they had been blocked or dissuaded from reporting their experiences to the authorities.

Perpetrators also demonstrated stalking or obsessive behaviour, including liking pictures posted online.

Women were also sexually assaulted, sent explicit messages and bullied, shouted at or threatened when they tried to break off relationships.

One PHD student, who had been in an abusive relationship with her supervisor, said: “It’s the worst single thing that has ever happened to me. My life will never be the same.”

Anna Bull, senior lecturer in sociology at the University of Portsmouth and lead author of the report, said: “We hope that this report will ... help improve institutional processes.”

It recommended that institutions should implement protocols for staff and students to raise low-level concerns including “grooming and boundary-blurring behaviour” and to “urgently improve their internal investigations processes” with “tougher regulation and sanctions”.