Australian Education Ministers agree on a way forward to substantively address gender-based violence in higher education.
The prevalence of experiences of sexual harassment and sexual assault among university students, and the profound impact of these experiences on victim/survivors’ university lives was reported in the 2021 National Student Safety Survey in which a total of 43,819 students from 38 UA member institutions across Australia participated.
The National Survey showed that since starting university, 1 in 6 students had been sexually harassed; 1 in 20 had been sexually assaulted; 1 in 2 knew some or all of the perpetrators when sexually harassed; 2 in 3 knew some or all of the perpetrators when sexually assaulted.
On 23 February 2024, Education Ministers agreed to the Action Plan Addressing Gender-based Violence in Higher Education (the Action Plan).
The Action Plan Addressing Gender-based Violence in Higher Education will drive the broader social change needed to address gender-based violence, and create safe study, work, social and living environments.
The Action Plan is a multi-pronged approach with 7 actions:
- establish a National Student Ombudsman
- higher education providers will embed a whole‑of‑organisation approach to prevent and respond to gender-based violence
- introduce a National Higher Education Code to Prevent and Respond to Gender-based Violence
- enhance the oversight and accountability of student accommodation providers
- identify opportunities to ensure legislation, regulation and policies can prioritise victim-survivor safety
- increase data transparency and scrutiny
- regular review of progress against the Action Plan.
Read the Action Plan Addressing Gender-based Violence in Higher Education
The National Student Ombudsman will be established within the Commonwealth Ombudsman, and will:
– receive and investigate student complaints about the administrative actions of their higher education providers
– make recommendations to a provider about the administrative steps that should be taken to resolve a complaint
– offer a restorative engagement process between student and provider where appropriate
– work with regulators in the sector to identify and respond to systemic issues
– promote best practice complaints handling across the higher education sector.
The National Student Ombudsman will be able to investigate complaints about a range of issues, such as:
– student safety and welfare, including gender-based violence
– course administration, such as timeliness and accuracy of information provided to students
– teaching provision and facilities, such as sufficiency of staffing to meet educational, academic and administrative needs of students
– disciplinary processes, such as procedures to address misconduct
– reasonable adjustments for students with disability or experiencing special circumstances
National Higher Education Code to Prevent and Respond to Gender-based Violence
The Australian Government will introduce a National Higher Education Code to Prevent and Respond to Gender-based Violence (‘National Code’).
The National Code will fill identified gaps in the currently regulatory architecture for student and staff safety by establishing best practice standards that all providers must meet. It will ensure transparency and accountability and centre the voices and needs of victim-survivors.
The Code will apply to all higher education providers registered by the Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency.
It is commendable that a national watchdog will be created to deal with growing safety concerns and rife gender-based violence on Australia’s university campuses and that higher education providers will be required to embed a whole‑of‑organisation approach to prevent and respond to gender-based violence.
Strengthening provider accountability against a new national higher education code to prevent and respond to gender-based violence, and enabling opportunities to introduce legislation and regulations is part of a strong multi-pronged approach to target gender based violence in Australia’s university campuses.