Today, the Office for Students (OfS) is launching a pilot survey to understand the prevalence of sexual misconduct in higher education in England – the first time a survey like this has been run at scale in the UK.
It will ask students at thirteen higher education providers about their experiences of sexual misconduct and sexual harassment, and how these experiences have affected their lives and studies. It will also explore students’ experiences of using the reporting mechanisms at their university.
We have commissioned IFF Research to run the survey, working with a group of volunteer providers, which range in size from large multi-facility universities with many thousands of students, to specialist higher education providers with smaller cohorts.
The survey draws on international best practice in prevalence surveys in higher education, including the ARC3 survey, which is widely used in the United States; the Republic of Ireland’s Student Experience of Sexual Violence and Harassment Survey; and the National Student Safety Survey in Australia (NSSS). The surveys from Ireland and Australia are national surveys, with strong participation from all publicly funded universities.
