Responses to reports of gender-based violence and harassment (GBVH) from UK higher education institutions have a long way to go before they are fit for purpose.
Higher Education After #MeToo follows on from The 1752 Group’s previous research, which concerns staff-student sexual misconduct, and explores staff-staff and student-student GBVH, drawing on interview data both from reporting parties and staff handling reports.
The research found that while there is a substantial amount of work that can be done at the level of individual institutions to improve reporting and case handling – not least to address the enormous disparity between institutions in their ability to handle reports appropriately – there are urgent sector-level or structural issues that need to be addressed to make reporting processes functional and fair.
While some higher education institutions (HEIs) attempt to tackle these issues at the institutional level, such complex legal and procedural questions require a standardised approach.
