Melbourne universities failing to change the course on sexual harassments
More than 250 cases of sexual assault and harassment were reported across six Victorian campuses since a damning report three years ago, with one university refusing to release its figures.
VIC News
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More than 250 reports of assault and sexual harassment have been made across six Victorian universities over the last three years.
The shocking figure does not include Melbourne’s RMIT, which refused to release its report numbers.
A Sunday Herald Sun investigation has found since the 2017 landmark Australian Human Rights Commission Change the Course report into sexual assault and harassment at universities, attacks on students have continued.
A total of 251 reports and disclosures of assault and harassment were made at Melbourne, Monash, Swinburne, Deakin, Australian Catholic University and Victoria University campuses, with a number of cases reported to, and investigated by, police.
Further assaults were reported off-campus, at university endorsed or affiliated events.
The Change the Course report found more than half of all uni students were sexually harassed at least once in 2016, and nearly seven per cent sexually assaulted once in 2015 or 2016.
Sex discrimination commissioner Kate Jenkins told the Sunday Herald Sun periodic audits had been conducted in the years following the report to track how, and to what extent, universities were implementing the report’s recommendations.
The most recent audit was last year, but all reporting was voluntary, Ms Jenkins said.
The Changing the Course report had revealed residential colleges were of particular concern when it came to sexual harassment and assaults, with female students four times more at risk than male, she said.
“Additionally, numerous submissions reported hazing and initiation practices taking place in residential colleges,” Ms Jenkins said.
“Increasing student confidence in reporting sexual harassment or assault is a key goal to creating safe campuses where all students can thrive. . . While much work has been done to improve practice and response . . . there is more to be done.”
RMIT, which repeatedly refused to release its assault and harassment figures to the Sunday Herald Sun, said support was available for victims of sexual harm at the university.
“Our priority is to ensure members of our community who have experienced, witnessed or received a disclosure of sexual harm know how to access vital support services and feel confident to reach out for help, no matter what the circumstance,” a spokesperson said.
Swinburne said it had formed a taskforce of students and staff and commissioned an independent, expert-led review of its sexually assault and harassment policies and report responses.
Melbourne University said it was set to launch a sexual and dating abuse website on March 8 and would finalise its report response in the next few months.
Deakin Student Life director John Devereaux said sexual assault and harassment remained a big problem, “at universities and beyond”.
“This is a global challenge to which no country and no university is immune,” he said.
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