A group of casually dressed teenagers enter Manchester University’s welcome fair at the student union. Alongside stalls for the Palestinian solidarity campaign and the pirate society, there are free contraceptives and pizza on offer. Before entering, the Women’s Officer at the university’s union handouts pens and leaflets on sexual harassment and the institution’s policy. The university pledges to confront sexual harassment and has an ongoing campaign called We Get It (WGI), which has already been signed by more than 5,000 students. As part of the campaign, students can report incidents of sexual harassment and receive support from anti-harassment advisers via a dedicated website.
A survey by the National Union of Students conducted in 2010 shows that one out of seven female students experienced a serious sexual or physical assault, and 68% of female students have experienced different types of sexual harassment. In response to the alarming survey results, the business secretary, Sajid Javid, obliged university vice-chancellors to perform an inquiry into assaults against women on campus. The WGI campaign is gradually improving attitudes towards sexual harassment at Britain’s biggest campus, Manchester University, as per the testimony of a rugby union club chair, who says that the club has a zero-tolerance policy towards such behaviour.
As part of their drive to address the problem of sexual harassment and violence on campus, the University of Bristol, the University of Warwick, Durham, and the University of Sussex plan to run consent workshops during Freshers’ week this year, according to the NUS. Kings College London offers an online alternative, while Oxford and Cambridge promote positive masculinity through consent and Good Lad workshops. The NUS began a pilot consent project with nine universities to identify best practices.
For women students coming from smaller towns or villages, personal safety is their topmost concern. Manchester University advises these students not to walk alone or have their phones out on campus. The WGI campaign aims to address sexual harassment on the campus and ensure that all students feel safe and protected while studying.
Although Lishak appreciates the government’s efforts to induce cultural transformation within universities, she remains dubious about adopting the American-style campus model, which enforces the obligation to investigate sexual assault cases. She disapproves of the current low reporting and conviction rates of sexual crimes by the police and courts and doubts whether universities would fare any better. Instead, she recommends that the government allocate more resources to rape crisis services and conduct in-depth studies to determine the extent and intensity of sexual violence on campuses.
Patrick Johnson, the head of equality and diversity at Manchester University, acknowledges that there is always room for improvement. He recognizes that the issue of sexual assault is multifaceted and challenging to address. Hence, he questions the efficacy of workshops on consent as a means of encouraging people to participate. While there is a zero-tolerance policy in place, achieving significant progress will involve ongoing discussions and changes.
