One in five female students have been sexually assaulted at uni, says new survey

TW: Sexual assault and harassment 

A new survey has revealed one in five female students are sexually assaulted at uni.

Empowered Campus ran a survey of 8,106 students which reveals the percentage of female students reporting being sexually assaulted has increased in the past 10 years.

The survey also revealed that one in four female students report being sexually harassed as a student.

via Scott Warman on Unsplash

Martha Jepcott, a rape survivor, created the survey which found that for the majority of students sexually assaulted the assault takes place on the university campus.

Martha described the current sexual assault situation as an “epidemic” and wants to work with universities to change their approach in how they handle sexual assault cases.

She said: “This is an epidemic where one in five female students are being sexually assaulted. Sometimes universities speak as if this is something beyond their control, but the data shows that the university is at the heart of the experience – that the majority of survivors experience their assault on campus, at the hands of another student.

“Empowered Campus brings together survivors, university staff, lawyers, specialist support services and all students to transform student and staff experiences because we know universities can do better.”

10 years ago the NUS had their own report which revealed one in seven female students reported having experienced a sexual or physical assault.

The Director of Student Voice and Democracy at NUS, Kat Stark, said they were committed to helping students and supporting Empowered Campus.

She said: “Horrifyingly, whilst our own research showed that 1 in 7 female students reported having experienced a sexual or physical assault in 2010, today almost one in five female students are reporting experiencing a sexual assault.

“We’re committed to changing the experience of students, and are proud to support the launch of EC to deal with this”

The Empowered Campus survey was done in collaboration with Trendence and gathered results from students across 124 universities.

Related stories recommended by this writer:

•These are the unis with the most confirmed coronavirus cases this term

•Universities aren’t doing enough to tackle campus racism, says new report

•Medics and geography students will be allowed back to uni in January before others