More than 100 students and staff at University of Sydney victims of sexual assault, harassment

A leading Australian university has revealed it received 121 reports of sexual misconduct last year.

More than 100 staff and students from the University of Sydney reported sexual misconduct last year, according to an inaugural annual report.

The University of Sydney report, released on Monday, revealed it had received 121 reports of sexual misconduct in 2022, including 74 cases of sexual assault and 47 cases of sexual harassment.

Referrals for sexual harassment had increased by 105 per cent, while sexual assault referrals had increased by 34 per cent in 2022 compared to 2021; a rise that aligned with the return of students to campus after the Covid-19 pandemic.

University of Sydney is one of the top universities in Sydney and consistently ranked in the top 50 in the world. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Bianca De Marchi

Of the 121 incidents reported, 55 were categorised as “university-related conduct”, meaning it either happened on campus, or during university activities (at an event, student exchange, or internships), or was perpetrated by a student or staff member.

Another 66 incidents were categorised as “non-university related conduct”, meaning those which had “no connection” to the university beyond it being reported by a student or staff member.

The report is part of the university’s commitment to “increased transparency and accountability” in addressing issues of sexual misconduct on campus and within the university community.

The university has seen referrals for sexual harassment increase 105 per cent in the year to 2022. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Damian Shaw

Australian universities have been under pressure to improve their handling of sexual misconduct in the years since the Australian Human Rights Commission’s landmark Change the Course report in 2017.

Alarmingly, by 2022, the high rates of sexual violence perpetrated at campuses around the country had barely shifted according to the National Student Safety Survey (NSSS).

The NSSS – which was a key recommendation of the report and was commissioned by peak body Universities Australia in 2021 – found one in six students had been sexually harassed since starting university, while one in 20 students had been sexually assaulted since commencing their studies.

In response to the 2017 report, all 39 Australian universities promised to be transparent about their handling of sexual harm on campus; but as of April this year, the Australian Human Rights Institute found 29 of them either weren’t reporting them in an accessible way, or at all.

University of Sydney Vice Chancellor Mark Scott told the Nine newspapers the university’s report reaffirmed the institution’s commitment to improve support for victim-survivors, “given the considerable doubt surrounding the university’s efforts in this area”.

Mark Scott. Picture: Britta Campion / The Australian

Sharna Bremner.

End Rape on Campus founder Sharna Bremner told news.com.au she was pleased to see the university publish the report, and encouraged other Australian institutions to follow suit.

She said that despite the numbers of reported incidents being much higher than in previous years, “more reports is a good thing”.

“When a university tells us they’ve had very few reports, it’s a huge red flag – either students don’t know how to report or they don’t feel comfortable reporting,” Ms Bremner said.

She said considering the “disturbingly low” numbers of reports in 2021, compared to the alarming results of the NSSS, 121 reports was “not bad”.

The NSSS found 9.5 per cent of University of Sydney students experienced sexual harassment within the 12 months to October 2021, while 1.5 per cent had experienced sexual assault in that period.

“That works out to be about 1161 students, but there were only about 20 reports; that’s disturbingly low,” Ms Bremner said.

“To jump to 121 reports is not bad, but the increase to that number, and knowing that reporting (of sexual misconduct) is much smaller than the incidence, tells me the University of Sydney still has a long way to go.”

Of the 121 incidents reported to the university, only 23 victim-survivors made formal complaints that triggered an investigation, while 98 made a “disclosure” to notify the university about what happened.

Within the 23 investigations, 12 were into claims into alleged acts of current students and nine were into allegations against former or current staff.

Ten complaints were assessed or investigated by the university, and only three of those were “fully or partially substantiated, and the respondent in each of these three cases had a penalty applied for misconduct”.

Universities have been under pressure to improve their response to sexual violence in their communities since a landmark 2017 report. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Bianca De Marchi

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Ms Bremner called for the university to publicly detail what those outcomes were to give victim-survivors more confidence to pursue complaints against their perpetrators by seeing tangible penalties.

“There’s this story of there’s no point filing if not a significant outcome,” she said.

“It’s a difficult processes for victim-survivors, it takes quite a long time, and a number of complaints are not resolved.

“But if the details of those outcomes were made public, it sends a signal about what the university will do if someone is found to engage in sexual misconduct, and gives the students the confidence their reports will be taken seriously and followed through.”

A University of Sydney spokesperson declined to comment on the details of outcomes when asked by news.com.au. They said the “expectations of our students and our approach to managing sexual misconduct matters including potential disciplinary action are publicly available”.

“Our sexual misconduct policies and procedures expressly provide for the University to inform complainants of the outcome of their complaint, and allow complainants to disclose the outcome of any parts of their complaint that were substantiated following investigation by or on behalf of the University,” they continued.

They said the university was “aware sexual misconduct is underreported” and had made “significant improvements” to its education efforts, reporting options, and support services to encourage victim-survivors to come forward.

“This increase in reports does not necessarily mean an increase in sexual misconduct – but we know that one case is one too many and every member of our community has the right to feel safe and supported and be treated with respect and dignity.”