Sexual and gender-based violence in higher education: 1 in 2 students feel insecure

On Tuesday, April 11, 2023, the Student Observatory on Sexual and Sexist Violence in Higher Education released its 2023 Barometer. For this survey, the organization collected responses from more than 10,000 people who studied in 2020-2021 or 2021 -2022 in a French higher education institution. The results speak for themselves: more than 1 in 2 students do not really feel safe in their institution regarding gender-based and sexual violence”. A situation that particularly affects women and transgender students.

Systemic violence

The Observatory’s survey shows that this violence is part of a culture of systemic sexism, which is not limited to one type of establishment or an aggressor profile: ” They are perpetuated both during festive events and during the daily life of students and extend to all types of establishments, public and private. They are engaged by other students, but also by teachers and staff. »

But if all levels of higher education are affected, some contexts are particularly affected. The report therefore notes that half of the rapes occur in the first year, particularly during festive events (such as integration weeks, for 16%) and in student residences. Additionally, courses with a strong community life top the list: “ More than 2 out of 3 students who were victims of or witnessed at least one of the violences mentioned in the report studied at a business school (72%), paramedical school (72%), engineering school (70%), high school (CPGE or BTS) (67%), a veterinary school (66%), an IEP (65%) or a large university institution (63%) “.

Failures to support victims within establishments

” Overall, the institutions fail to accept the words of the victims and adequately support them. There are also many institutions without any mechanisms to combat violence “, writes the president of the Observatory Iris Maréchal, in a press release.

Yet nearly 1 in 10 (9%) students say they have been a victim of sexual assault
since his arrival in higher education. And among the rape victims and witnesses who reported the facts to their establishment, a third received neither psychological nor legal support. Worse still, one out of four victims was not offered the initiation of a disciplinary procedure, the institutions preferred, for 44% of them, to condition the initiation of an internal investigation to the presentation of a complaint, contrary to what required by law.

How, then, can you trust your university? For many students, the answer is simple: it’s impossible. Therefore, only 12% of rape victims decide to alert their institution, 14% prefer to change university or school and 13% think about interrupting their studies.

Faced with these edifying data, the Observatory denounced a ” lack of ambition in public policies to combat such violence and called on relevant ministries, as well as higher education institutions, to do so deploy financial, human and political resources commensurate with the challenges “. More prevention, benevolent listening, adequate support, more effective surveillance cells… the paths for improvement proposed by the Observatory are many. It remains to be seen whether the competent authorities will take the measure of urgency.