A UNIVERSITY VIEW
SEXUAL harassment affects people every day.
Successful campaigns by the National Union of Students (NUS) have raised awareness and empowered people on our university campuses to speak out and demand action like never before.
A recent NUS poll of students found 17% of respondents had been victims of some form of sexual harassment during their first week of term and 295 had witnessed sexual harassment directed at someone else.
The message – loud and clear – is that universities must raise awareness and, working with our community partners, provide clear support pathways.
We should be committed to addressing violence and abuse affecting both students and staff, and seek to be an exemplar to wider civic society as we seek to address this massive cultural challenge.
One of the key recommendations of a report by Universities UK was the need to take innovative steps to respond to incidents of harassment, hate-crime and sexual assault.
That’s why Cardiff University developed a proactive, university-wide approach to addressing violence and abuse, which acknowledges the prevalence of violence and abuse in society and how this impacts on our community. We have focussed our response in three key areas – prevention, intervention and response.
As part of our response, we have introduced an online disclosure tool so that students have the opportunity to disclose their experiences.
This allows a student to identify themselves, or remain anonymous if that is their preference.
Students making an identified disclosure receive practical advice and support from a team of trained disclosure response advisers. Students disclosing anonymously help us form a clearer picture of the problem that universities – as a microcosm of wider society – face.
It is important that the sector, as a whole, appreciates that the historically low number of campus disclosures is not necessarily proof that students are not experiencing such incidents – they are.
As part of our efforts to prevent violence and abuse, we have introduced a tiered training framework for staff and student. This is based on the Welsh Government/NHS National Framework for addressing violence and abuse which we have refined and developed for a university setting. This helps our students and staff to recognise abuse and signpost anyone affected to the appropriate advice and support.
Student leaders have also been trained in bystander intervention, to give them the skills to intervene safely when witnessing violence and abuse.
The university has worked in partnership with Cardiff University Students’ Union to promote key campaigns which address violence and abuse on a cultural level.
Our campaign “It’s Not On” promotes inclusivity on a safe university campus with the aim of changing culture and behaviour for the benefit of everyone.
In spite of the many positive initiatives, our students need access to support to foster a culture that mitigates fully against unacceptable behaviour. We also need to do more to reach out to those, like our LGBT+ students, who are disproportionately affected.
We still have some way to go, but we are willing to acknowledge the problem and are committed to taking whatever action is necessary to tackle it.
Creating a new approach to supporting people who have experienced violence and abuse is key.
We want to help our students to understand boundaries and be safe. Critically we also want to help those who have experienced violence or abuse to access support, have a positive student experience and the best possible outcome from their higher education.
Ben Lewis is director, student support & wellbeing at Cardiff University