CHAPTER 1: SETTING THE SCENE AND THE
NATURE AND SCALE OF THE PROBLEM
1.
To inform its work, the Taskforce examined government strategy documents,
published research, written contributions and official statistics.
2.
This chapter summarises the policy context and published research. Annexe B
describes the Taskforce’s methodology and Annexe C provides a more
comprehensive analysis of the evidence reviewed by the Taskforce to determine
the nature and scale of the problem in universities.
3.
The evidence reviewed by the Taskforce showed clearly that there are two
distinct strands to successfully addressing these issues: (i) having a robust
strategy in place to provide an effective response and (ii) having a robust
strategy to prevent incidents from happening in the first place. Both approaches
should operate in tandem and inform each other.
4.
The areas examined by the Taskforce are of direct relevance to every university.
Universities have a responsibility to ensure a safe environment for students and
the evidence shows that students are affected by incidents of harassment, hate
crime and violence against women. These are problems which affect wider
society and every region of the country – universities are not immune from them
and in many ways are a microcosm of society. Currently, 48% of young people
participate in higher education by the time they are 309 and there are 2.3 million
students enrolled in UK