International initiatives
33. The UK is not alone in examining violence against women in higher education. Other countries are similarly concerned. The Taskforce therefore considered initiatives implemented in the United States of America( US), Australia and Canada in relation to sexual assault and harassment.
34. In the US, there has been a considerable volume of work focusing primarily on university responses to sexual assault. It is worth noting that the legal context is very different in the US where universities possess greater investigatory powers under Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972. Nonetheless, there appears to be scope for the UK to draw upon the US experience to enhance university responses. Several UK universities are already doing this, including drawing upon the sexual misconduct processes adopted by institutions such as Yale University( see case study 3 in Annexe E).
35. A number of responses received by the Taskforce referenced the work of the White House Task Force to Protect Students from Sexual Assault. The first report of the White House Task Force sets out the key aspects of an effective institutional response, as identified in the research. 35 It is interesting to note that there is significant overlap between these aspects and the core principles that have been identified in chapter 3 of this report. These, and further work carried out by the US Task Force, are set out in Annexe C.
36. In February 2016, Universities Australia announced the launch of the‘ Respect. Now. Always.’ campaign to prevent sexual assault and harassment in Australian universities. 36 This sector-wide campaign focuses on raising awareness, providing clear support pathways and encouraging a zero-tolerance stance on sexual assault and harassment. Initial work has focused on developing campaign materials which individual universities can use to demonstrate that they take a zero-tolerance approach to sexual assault and sexual harassment. The next stage will involve a survey of 60,000 students to understand their experiences and the support they received from their university. Subsequently, survey findings will be analysed and individual universities will be provided with data to benchmark themselves against the rest of the sector.
37. In Canada, although the work towards tackling sexual violence on campus is not as far progressed as in the US, it has gained more attention in recent years. Examples of initiatives are available in Annexe C.
Sexual orientation and gender identity-based harassment and hate crime
38. There are a number of reports examining the experiences of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender students. The most recent and comprehensive of these – research by the NUS with LGBT students in 2014 – highlighted that the experience of LGBT + students was not always as positive as it should be.
35
Not Alone: the first report of the White House Task Force to Protect Students from Sexual Assault( April 2014).
36
Available at https:// www. universitiesaustralia. edu. au / Media-and-Events / media-releases / Respect-- Now--Always--University-sector-launches-new-campaign #. VtBkOE1ybcv
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