the behaviours associated with ‘lad culture’ were not seen as the particular ‘preserve
of the privileged’ as some of the existing research had suggested
‘lad culture’ behaviour was not restricted to men
The research also highlighted that while there were clearly other influences which shaped a
student’s experience of university, where ‘lad culture’ is present it remains an influencing
factor. This led the researchers to suggest that there was little in place to deal with the
behaviour and attitudes identified as creating this culture on campus.
In 2014, the NUS also held a summit on ‘lad culture’ which led to the development of a
national strategy team. An audit of institutional and students’ union approaches to tackling
‘lad culture’ was carried out. The audit analysed the policies, training, education and support
services that institutions and students’ unions had put in place to tackle ‘lad culture’. The
policies the NUS considered relevant were dignity at work, equality and diversity, alcohol
and substance abuse, violence and harassment, and bullying and safe spaces.
The audit revealed that:
many students’ unions and institutions lacked policy to directly address ‘lad culture’
some equality and diversity and bullying and harassment policies were ill-defined,
often not relevant to ‘lad culture’, and at times unclear on what constitutes sexual
harassment and assault
51% of institutions had a formal policy on sexual harassment
one in ten had a policy that covered the display of sexist and discriminatory material
many institutional complaints procedures put the onus on the victim to try and
resolve matters ‘informally first’
only one in ten students’ unions (11%) provided training
32% of students’ unions provided sexual consent workshops
6% of institutions had included consent as part of their curriculum
The NUS developed a ‘lad culture’ pilot scheme, partnering with nine institutions and
students’ unions to implement an effective strategy for tackling ‘lad culture’. As a result, a
benchmarking tool has been developed to help all universities in achieving this, and sets out
five principles to tackle ‘lad culture’ along with guidance on implementing each principle.79
In 2015, the NUS carried out a poll of new students’ awareness of sexual harassment
reporting procedures at university. The survey was conducted with 2,670 respondents from a
nationally significant sample frame. 80 The survey found that:
http://www.nusconnect.org.uk/resources/5-principles-of-tackling-lad-culture-benchmarking-tool
See http://www.nus.org.uk/en/news/nus-research-reveals-one-in-four-students-suffer-unwelcome-sexualadvances/
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