Universities are letting “star quality and intellectual” academics get away with “rampant” sexual assault, a report concluded.

The University and College Union (UCU) interviewed nearly 4,000 university and college staff and released its findings today, in what it called a “groundbreaking report” that highlighted a “culture protection from predators “which can” ruin careers and lives “.

It found that sexual violence is “rampant” in universities, with one in 10 staff members assaulted at work but only half reporting incidents in the past five years. It also found that 12 percent of women and 5 percent of men had directly experienced sexual violence in the workplace.

Of these, 52 percent did not disclose or report it to their employer and 70 percent experienced sexual violence as an ongoing pattern of behavior rather than a one-time incident.

Power imbalance

Jo Grady, UCU general secretary, said there was often a perception that the perpetrators were “untouchable”. “It is one of the most prevalent components of sexual violence, harassment and bullying.

“Often there is an imbalance of power between perpetrators and predators [and their victims] and intellect and star quality are used as the reasons to enable them to maintain positions of responsibility. “

She added that there are “many promising young women whose careers are” completely ruined by predatory male academics who have been protected “and who” remain in their roles or go elsewhere and potentially terrorize a whole new group. of people over the years “.

The UCU General Secretary said that “there is a culture of protecting predators” because often they “bring in a lot of money for research and get these research grants and publications”.

Those with higher risk non-permanent contracts

“Sexual violence is common and current responses are simply inadequate. It is widespread in terms of education and its networks – for example, conferences – and failures to address its prevalence, scale and damage, ”she concluded.

The UCU report also found that staff on non-permanent contracts were 1.3 times more likely to experience direct sexual violence than those in permanent positions, while trans and non-binary workers were at higher risk of experiencing direct sexual violence. directly from sexual violence (1.3 times more likely).

In UK universities alone, nearly 100,000 academic and related staff are on precarious contracts.

The study also found that staff with disabilities were twice as likely to experience years of direct sexual violence as staff without disabilities, and workers with a non-heterosexual sexual orientation were almost twice as likely to experience direct sexual violence. sexual violence than their heterosexual peers.

‘Oh it’s just the boys’

Survivors of sexual violence testified to the report. One survivor noted: “His boss said it was ‘just the way he was’ without ever taking any action,” while another said: “Senior executives knew about it, encouraged him, laughed at it and made it “ok” and “acceptable” […], ‘oh, it’s just the boys’ or’ it’s just [person’s name]’. “

Another added: “I did not report the incident. He was a member of the management team with a reputation for being untouchable due to his charm and charisma […]. I wish it had been a more supportive environment where I felt I could have raised him.

The UCU makes a number of recommendations for employers to implement, including dropping the use of non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) with perpetrators, disclosing the results of complaints to survivors, and including information on disciplinary proceedings in the references provided to the authors.

He also called on universities and colleges to provide guidance to employees who complain of sexual violence and to those who act as representatives in cases of sexual violence in the workplace.