Content warning: the following article contains discussions of sexual misconduct and material that some may find distressing.
The University of Sydney has released their second and Annual Report on Sexual Misconduct for 2023. The launch of their ‘Roadmap to Prevention of Sexual Misconduct’ released in 2023 details the University’s response and commitment to improved safety on campus.
The report considers both University and non-University related cases, visualising data sourced from reports received, as well as drawing information from their ‘Improving Inclusion and Accessibility Intersectionality survey’.
In 2023, 246 reports of sexual misconduct were received, revealing an approximate 100% increase from the 121 reports received in 2022.
Following the increase of reports a University statement on the matter said, “An increase in reports may not necessarily represent an increase in incidents, but may reflect increased awareness of our reporting and support options. Last year, we also welcomed all students back to campus following the COVID-19 pandemic and increased numbers of students is also likely to be a factor.”
“In many ways our University is a microcosm of broader society and because of this we must be vigilant about working with our community, the sector and government – we cannot solve these societal challenges alone and have a responsibility to do everything we can to protect our people.”
15% of this year’s reports were considered neither university nor non-University due to “insufficient evidence,” whilst 23% of cases were considered university related.
This comes after incidents on campus such as the alleged sexual misconduct at Fisher Library late last year.
A statement provided by the Sexaul Assault and Sexual Harassment (SASH) Officer read that “the results of the survey were incredibly disappointing. A 103% increase from 2022 is devastating, especially when you consider that we’re only scraping the surface with these statistics given how [many cases] are unreported.”
The SASH Officer criticised the lack of detail regarding the outcome of the complaints and consultations lodged and stated that this means “we cannot scrutinise the efficacy of the university’s response to these reports”.
In response to transparency of complaint outcomes, a University spokesperson told Honi, “We have listened to feedback from our community about our inaugural 2022 Annual Report including from students with lived experience, which suggested it was vital to include more details on outcomes and penalties to improve transparency and accountability. This report seeks to balance our privacy obligations with the need for transparency and provides high level descriptions of complaints outcomes that do not risk identifying individual respondents.”
The report did reveal that 8% of reports of sexual misconduct in 2023 involved “university-owned or affiliated student accommodation.” The same disclosure was not made in the 2022 report.
In response the SASH Officer told Honi that “the lack of data surrounding residential colleges and student accommodation is very disappointing since we know that’s where the bulk of sexual misconduct occurs.”
Of the 197 reports from current or former students, 45% of cases were from international students, 44% were from domestic, and 11% were of unknown status.
Addressing the rates of international student cases were only mentioned once again, in reference to the University’s ongoing international students’ sexual and intimate
partner violence experiences study (INVEST), run by the University of Melbourne.
Earlier this year, an independent National Student Ombudsman was announced in the federal budget to address the ongoing issue of student safety on campus including cases of sexual misconduct.
Accompanying the report, the University announced their ‘Roadmap to Prevention of Sexual Misconduct’ in May of this year, focusing on improving their consent campaign and modules, streamlining reporting pathways, addressing inclusion and accessibility pathways and improving sexual health education for international students.
The roadmap was designed and endorsed in 2022 based off of the 2021 National Students Surveys but the status of the initiative’s effective roll out remains unclear.
The University remains firm in their commitment to improving the safety standard on campus with a further statement telling Honi, “We have invested significantly over several years to improve our preventative measures, reporting options and support services and we’ve made a lot of progress but we know there is more work to do. Change will only happen if we continue to listen to our community, share our experiences with the sector, and develop and implement strategies to help eliminate this serious problem.”
“We are committed to continuing targeted action to create a safe, inclusive and supportive environment and will continue to work with our community, governments and other universities to align consent campaigns and other initiatives to tackle sexual misconduct on university campuses” the statement read.
If you or someone you know needs to access resources or file a report about an incident, you can access resources here.
Updates were made to this article (15/08): content warning, and adjustment to media comment phrasing.
