In the UK, institution-level data collection on gender-based sexual violence and harassment remains underdeveloped, with no sector-standard survey tool available or in use.
Conversely, North America has a well-developed tradition of campus climate surveys and an array of instruments available to explore students’ perceptions of safety on campus, fears, and/or experiences of sexual assault and victimisation issues – with findings easily accessible. The US Congress even passed legislation in 2022 supporting the development of a national climate survey to be administered every two years in all colleges and universities that accept federal funding.
Yet, in the UK, data collection in this area is much less developed. While the National Union of Students conducted a survey of student-student sexual misconduct in 2010 and worked with The 1752 Group to survey staff sexual misconduct, and the Office for Students is currently preparing a national prevalence survey, data at institution level is extremely difficult to find.
More concerningly, there are indications that even when data is being gathered, it is not being published. Khatidja Chantler’s 2019 study of university staff involved in addressing gender-based violence and harassment found that 31 out of 71 respondents reported their institutions were doing prevalence surveys to establish baseline data. Only a handful of these appear to have publicly reported their institution-level survey findings – which were mainly carried out by students’ unions.
