Meaningful and insightful sex and consent education at secondary level is needed to help stamp out sexual harassment

Sexual harassment is a massive problem on university campuses. It has been for years, and progress is low and slow-moving. Universities and the Government are beginning to make attempts to tackle this issue, but not succeeding. Change is required immediately, and this can probably only be achieved through a paradigm change rooted in early education.

Research conducted by the National Union of Students (NUS) in 2010 on women students’ experiences of violence, harassment and sexual assault returned some harrowing findings; 68 per cent of respondents had experienced verbal or non-verbal harassment on or around campus, with many citing such incidents were happening almost “everyday” to them.

A further one in seven had experienced a serious sexual or physical assault during their time as a student, yet only two per cent of victims of less serious sexual assault reported the incident to their institution or the police, and 40 per cent of victims of serious sexual assault told nobody at all.

Unfortunately, these statistics don’t come as a shock. If anything, it’s surprising the harassment figures are as low as they are. As a female university student myself, it’s become commonplace to have crude comments shouted at me from cars, to be repeatedly groped in clubs, or leered at by the bar. My peers are able to reel-off lists of times they’ve been subject to it too; one violently grabbed by the crotch by a stranger in a club, another persistently followed by male students refusing to take no for an answer.

It cannot be denied, though, that attention has turned towards this problem. Last year, business secretary Sajid Javid announced a new taskforce which will work with the higher education sector to “develop a code of practice to bring about cultural change, leverage existing complaints mechanisms more effectively, and improve engagement with Crime Prevention Officers” with the aim to “ensure universities have a plan to stamp out violence against women and provide a safe environment for all their students.”

Universities across the UK have implemented policies, such as UEA’s Never OK campaign against sexual harassment, and consent workshops are run at numerous institutions with victims taking their own stand through initiatives such as the Reclaim the Night movement.

But this “cultural change” that Mr Javid talks of hasn’t been achieved. We’re at a point now where the mistreatment and disrespect of women through assault and harassment has been entirely normalised. Half of the problem is that the victims are so used to it, they see no benefit in reporting it. When they do, the university schemes tend to focus upon (highly valuable) support for the victim instead of punishment for the culprit. If there are no repercussions for their actions, how can we expect these people who lack in morals and respect in the first place to change? Serious sexual assault can carry up to ten years imprisonment. We can’t continue to let people get away with it unscathed.

To create sustainable change, we must look to the root of the issue too - secondary education where these problems often begin to develop. Deplorably, sex education is no longer compulsory and, where it is taught, it’s often not up to scratch. Alongside the standard condom-on-a-banana demonstration, we need meaningful and insightful education on consent, feminism, what constitutes harassment and the implications of these actions from as young as Year 7. Girls should also be educated on their power to say ‘No’, their autonomy over their bodies, and the importance of reporting instances of assault.

Education during more formative years will lead to young adults with healthier attitudes towards sex and gender relations and, therefore, undoubtedly resulting in reductions in assault and harassment as well as in the culture of secrecy and “hidden marks” the NUS research presented. A more multilateral policy at universities focusing on punishment alongside victim support will help to stamp out assault and harassment in the short term too.

Through concerted action by educators at all levels, and government policy with a bit of common sense, we can all but vanquish sexual harassment on university campuses. There’s no excuse not to.