Data shows sexual harassment is rife in Australian universities, and crimes are going unreported

AT WESTERN Sydney University, 49 per cent of students surveyed said they had experienced sexual harassment last year. Sadly 94 per cent of these incidents go unreported.

Anais Carrington was sick of seeing statistics around sexual harassment and assault climb, so she joined Respect. Now. Always. at WSU’s Bankstown campus. Picture: Melvyn Knipe

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LAST week, the Australian Human Rights Commission released a landmark report into sexual assault figures at Australian universities.

The national survey of 31,000 students revealed that 51 per cent were sexually harassed at least once in 2016, 25 per cent in a university setting.

At Western Sydney University, 49 per cent of 618 students surveyed experienced sexual harassment last year and 25 per cent of these occurred across the university’s 10 campuses.

Anais Carrington, 24, is a psychology student at WSU and part of the Bankstown campus Queer Collective.

Since she began her bachelor degree, Ms Carrington has been sexually harassed five times on the train to university.

Ms Carrington said students do not know the process that the university for reporting sexual assault. Picture: Melvyn Knipe

Ms Carrington said she was “sick of living in a world where that kind of behaviour is seen as respectable”, so she joined Respect. Now. Always, a student ambassador program that aims to raise awareness about sexual assault.

One aspect of the AHRC report shocked her more than anything — that 94 per cent of people did not report assaults.

“The reasons behind that were things like they don’t know where to go or don’t know the process,” Ms Carrington said.

“So it’s not that they don’t want to report it, it’s just they don’t know how.”

Alarmingly, minority groups including the LGBTI community, people who are disabled or from culturally or linguistically different backgrounds were more likely to be victims of assault.

Canterbury state Labor MP Sophie Cotsis (in the middle in red shirt and blue pants) is concerned that people from diverse backgrounds were more likely to be victims of sexual assault and harassment.

Canterbury state Labor MP and Opposition spokeswoman for women Sophie Cotsis said the results were horrifying.

“Students from non-English speaking backgrounds are 23 per cent more likely to be sexually harassed,” she said.

“We need targeted action to protect culturally and linguistically diverse students.”

WSU has formed a taskforce to implement the recommendations from the AHRC report.

Bankstown campus provost, Professor Peter Hutchings, said the issue was already on WSU’s radar, but the scale of the problem was “very disappointing”.

Mr Hutchings said the university was establishing support mechanisms as a “whole institution response”, but locally the Bankstown campus had taken additional steps to reach out to students living on site at Milperra.

Ms Carrington said it was not just a university issue, but a society issue

“Our uni is taking it very seriously,” she said. “While it does look bleak there is a lot of good work going on.”

UNIVERSITIES CALL FOR “ZERO TOLERANCE’ ON SEXUAL ASSAULT

WSU STATISTICS ON SEXUAL HARASSMENT AND ASSAULT — 2016

■ 25 per cent of WSU students reported that they experienced some form of sexual harassment in a university setting

■ 94 per cent of those who had experienced sexual harassment did not raise a formal report or complaint with the university

■ 92 per cent did not seek support from the university, citing reasons including not being clear on how to do so.

■ 26 per cent witnessed sexual harassment at university

■ 19 per cent of assaults happened on public transport to university