CHANGING THE CULTURE | Page 5

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY This report summarises the evidence considered by the Universities UK Taskforce to examine violence against women, harassment and hate crime and makes recommendations in response to that evidence. The Taskforce was established in September 2015. Its terms of reference (Annexe A) focused principally on violence against women, harassment and hate crime. This report therefore pays particular attention to these issues but acknowledges that further work is required in other areas. The Taskforce assessed a range of evidence documenting the nature and scale of the problem in higher education institutions. This revealed that incidents of harassment, hate crime and violence do happen at UK universities. This is unacceptable. These experiences can have a considerable impact on student wellbeing, academic attainment, student retention, institutional reputation and future student recruitment. The evidence also suggested that despite some positive activity, university responses are not as comprehensive, systematic and joined-up as they could be. A commitment to addressing these issues is required within every university, from senior leadership down. The evidence revealed that these issues are not just isolated to universities but are relevant to wider society including schools, work places, sports organisations and entertainment venues. Universities in other countries, including the United States of America and Australia, are also seeking to address the same problems – there is scope for the UK to learn from their experiences. UK universities have a significant opportunity to lead the way in preventing and responding to violence against women, harassment and hate crime. In doing so, this will have an impact that extends well beyond university campuses. There is already an extensive range of activity taking place in the sector in relation to preventing incidents of violence against women, harassment and hate crime, and responding effectively should they occur. A number of case studies feature in this report. This positive activity is often driven by a particular university function or the students' union, and does not always take a coherent, systematic approach across the whole institution. This can impact upon the effectiveness of prevention activities and the quality of university responses. Universities need to be encouraged and supported to take an institution-wide approach which draws together activities across the university from promoting positive behaviours through to ensuring that appropriate support is in place for students. In adopting such an approach, it is vital to ensure that there is effective data collection, appropriate governance, robust risk management and regular impact assessments. This will enable institutions to assess the effectiveness of procedures and improve them where necessary. Regular and ongoing engagement with students was identified as being of critical importance. It is essential not only in relation to prevention activities, but also in 4