The National Student Safety Survey results have been released

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Universities Australia released the results of the NSSS on Wednesday 23 March. The purpose of the survey was to collect data on the scale and nature of university student experiences of sexual harassment and sexual assault.

There has not been the progress for students that was hoped for when the Respect.Now.Always program launched in 2016.

There is still a prevalence of sexual harassment and sexual assault across all universities, including Macquarie.

Of particular concern, too few students know where to find out information about sexual harassment and sexual assault.

Vice-Chancellor, Professor S Bruce Dowton, described the results as disappointing and said is very clear that we all have a role to play in addressing this issue and supporting our students. “We must all keep working to ensure that no student experiences these behaviours and every student knows how to seek support or make a report,” he said.

Here’s what members of staff can do for our students:

Once you submit a report, Student Wellbeing will contact the student, if they are identified, to discuss the situation and plan next steps. If the student is not identified, Student Wellbeing staff may contact you to discuss the situation. For a student who has experienced sexual harassment or sexual assault, the initial focus of Student Wellbeing is on providing support and identifying response options. Response options depend on the individual situation.

Professor Dowton is committed to preventing these behaviours and improving the University’s support to students. “As a start we will reframe our student code of conduct and further embed our expectations in student education programs. We will do further work on our staff and student training initiatives and review our resourcing for peer educators,” he said.

You can access the general Universities Australia report here, and our Macquarie University report statistics, and a commitment from the Vice-Chancellor, on our student website.

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