According to some unreleased reports by the Sunday Morning Herald and the Sunday Age, it was found that 8 of the best undergraduate colleges in the top ten best-ranked universities in Australia got the worst feedback for their response to sexual assault and harassment complaints.
These reports were received by the journals under the freedom of information laws which gives the right to access information to government documents and reports.
According to the reports, all the colleges were ranked lowest when it comes to how confident were the residents residing in the campus about the response teams whenever a harassment claim is reported.
There were three responses to the survey like ‘good progress’, ‘making progress’ and ‘needs development’, the third response was chosen by the majority of students. Students, faculties, and staff were interviewed apart from the survey responses and the same results were found. These colleges were ranked much better when it comes to ragging juniors, drugs and the use of illegal substances and campus security.
Universities need to improve their sexual assault policies
A similar report was released by the Australian National University in December 2018, which reported that the students were highly dissatisfied with the performance of their colleges in matters related to sexual assault and harassment. However, most of the report was redacted for the privacy of the interviewees.
The universities all across the country were warned to improve their policies and the system to report the complaints so that the people residing in the campus start feeling safer. The students believe that there have been no such changes in the policies since 2018. Student leaders of the ANU have gone on strikes with multiple issues, including sexual assault.
The colleges and universities are still given time to update their policies and a similar survey in 2020 will be carried out by the ANU’s Social Research Centre.
