Sexual violence on campus: evidence and action

The role of Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) in changing attitudes to gender-based violence (GBV) is crucial to the Scottish Government’s strategic vision outlined in its national strategy Equally Safe. On a campus context, evidence indicates that over one third of UK women students have experienced unwelcome sexual advances. This research is developing a national HEI toolkit, Equally Safe in Higher Education (ESHE) at the University of Strathclyde. This will generate baseline data on GBV across a whole HEI campus by piloting a mixed mode research methodology. This will be the first Scottish dataset on GBV across a whole campus cohort; including student-student and staff-student abuse. This baseline data is crucial for informing the development of effective responses, preventative measures and the provision of support. The survey methodology will address five research questions related to GBV: prevalence, attitudes, disclosure rates, service uptake and perceptions of campus safety. This paper will outline the context, aims and objectives of ESHE, methodology and preliminary findings from the pilot survey.