Gender-based violence is occurring at an alarming scale across Australian university campuses. The 2021 National Student Safety Survey found that one in six students were sexually harassed and one in twenty were sexually assaulted since starting university, with rates much higher for women and gender-diverse students. It is likely these numbers are underreported. However, only 5.6 per cent of students who were sexually assaulted who took part in the survey made a formal report to their university. And fewer than one in three who came forward were satisfied with the outcome.

The National Tertiary Education Union ran their own survey. This found that almost one in three university staff reported experiencing sexual harassment in the workplace. New research shows that 40 per cent of women international students have experienced at least once form of sexual violence since arriving in Australia. Despite these reports demonstrating the lack of safety for university students and staff, there has not been rigorous and necessary investment needed to address it — until now.

How bad are universities at addressing gender-based violence?

Universities have continuously failed to keep students and staff safe from gender-based violence. In many cases, they have allocated so little resources to preventing and responding to gender-based violence on campus that as few as one to two people are hired to do the work across a whole university.

With such inadequate allocations of resources and funding, what hope is there that universities will be held to account to achieve the social, cultural and systems changes needed to keep students and staff safe and hold abusers to account? More concerning still are the claims of “zero tolerance” from university leaders in media statements and strategic plans, whilst simultaneously taking no action when victim-survivors decide to report.

Victim-survivors and their advocates have been calling for widespread reform of the higher education sector for years. Advocacy groups like End Rape on Campus (EROC) Australia and The STOP Campaign shared reports in 2018 and 2023 that detail firsthand experiences of sexual violence, hazing, bullying, intimidation and subsequent betrayal when trying to report or access support within their institutions. Most damning is the similarity in experiences between these years, demonstrating the lack of meaningful action from universities to prevent violence on campus and provide support to students since the landmark 2017 Change the Course report.

The peak body for the sector, Universities Australia, has similarly fallen short of implementing effective solutions to address gender-based violence on campus. A key example of this is when $1.5 million was wasted on an anti-sexual violence campaign funded by taxpayers that never eventuated. All because a select number of Vice-chancellors blocked the campaign’s roll-out, reportedly for being too explicit. Instead, Universities Australia released a Good Practice Guide, largely comprising of re-purposed material, about ways to prevent sexual violence on campus.  The document has yet to be implemented in any meaningful way.

Universities have had eight years to bring their policies and practices up to scratch since recommendations were made in the 2017 Change the Course report. And while there have been some individual improvements scattered across the sector, pushed by overworked but passionate staff and students, it is not enough. For example, one of the most widespread prevention activities that was rolled out across universities is known as “Consent Matters”. This short, one-off online education module has been used by many universities to tick off their commitment to preventing gender-based violence. However, it has been called out by experts and students alike as being unhelpful and ineffective.

Another example of recommendations not having translated into action or reasonable improvement is staff failing to intervene when they became aware a student was allegedly sexually harassed and sexually assaulted by a staff member and a senate inquiry slammed the way universities have responded to sexual violence complaints. This failure to act extends to the current higher education regulator, the Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency (TEQSA). During the same Senate Inquiry into Current and Proposed Sexual Consent Laws, TEQSA confessed that they had failed to investigate any of the thirty-nine complaints they received pertaining to poor university responses to reports of sexual violence on campus. This failure by TEQSA is another reason as to why advocates called for the establishment of an independent expert-led oversight body to force the sector into action.

It is evident that universities cannot be trusted to act without oversight and enforcement by an external regulator.

What is the National Code?

Legislation to establish a National Higher Education Code to Prevent and Respond to Gender-based Violence was introduced into Parliament on 6 February to address this epidemic. After the election was called on 28 March, it became clear that it would not have time to enter into force. However, Labor continues to support the Code and we can anticipate that it would pass once if it is re-elected.

This first-of-its kind reform comes after years of advocacy from students and groups like EROC Australia and Fair Agenda calling for the government to establish an independent oversight mechanism to address this issue. Much of this advocacy has been documented by Dr Allison Henry to show how integral civil society activism has been to achieve these reforms. It forms a part of a larger government commitment of $38 million to implement the Action Plan Addressing Gender-based Violence in Higher Education. $18.7 million of this being allocated to develop and introduce the National Code over four years.

Following the Australian Universities Accord, the Action Plan and National Code were developed in collaboration with victim-survivor advocates, gender-based violence experts and university representatives. The National Code will set a consistent national standard so that all students and staff feel safe and supported during their study and employment. It is intended to strengthen accountability and ensure that institutions adopt a whole-of-organisation approach to prevent and respond to gender-based violence in higher education.

As leaders in and advocates for the prevention of gender-based violence, we strongly support the National Code as a crucial step to push universities to act. Without enforcement of the National Code to ensure providers comply with its requirements, we are concerned that universities are still not doing enough, and students are bearing the consequences.

What will the National Code do?

The National Code has three clear aims:

1. Reduce gender-based violence in higher education
2. Create national standards
3. Enforce compliance through a regulatory framework

To achieve this, it includes seven standards — ranging from governance structures, reporting processes, prevention activities, support services, data collection and student accommodation. Universities are going to have to do more than increase lighting on campus, share a few online modules, write a fancy document and call it a day. There are so many important elements of the National Code that we could talk about, but to keep you here with us we will highlight a few.

• Vice-chancellors and CEOs will be personally responsible for preventing and responding to gender-based violence on campus. This might finally entice them to invest properly in student and staff safety.
• Prevention will not look like online click-throughs and lectures by former police officers talking about how women can protect themselves. Education and training must be developed with actual gender-based violence experts and delivered regularly to staff and students.
• When a victim-survivor discloses or reports to the university about what happened to them, the responders must treat them with respect and care, and immediately put safety measures in place. If the victim-survivor wants the university to act, the university must investigate within forty-five business days and inform the victim-survivor of the outcome.
• Universities also must collaborate with students, staff, victim-survivors and gender-based violence experts when doing this. Quick-fix documents that do not make sense for the intended community will no longer do.
• This sounds dry, but institutions will have to collect data, use it to make their prevention and response better, and share that data publicly. This has important implications for building a nationalised evidence-base about how to get this right, which is hugely important.
• Say goodbye to those pesky non-disclosure agreements often used to silence victim-survivors and protect perpetrators. They will not be allowed anymore.
• Finally, our personal favourite: universities must enter into agreements with the private companies that may run student accommodation in their area. And if these companies do not comply, then they can no longer authorise their affiliation to each other publicly or reserve rooms for students. What better way than to attack their corporate business model? By the way, this also applies to all those residential colleges run by religious organisations that tolerate hazing rituals in the name of “tradition”.

Universities cannot be trusted to mark their own work on this issue. Repeatedly, they have failed to follow through on broken promises of commitment to take gender-based violence seriously and to put the safety and wellbeing of victim-survivors first. We need external intervention to bring these powerful institutions to the table to do their part — to see staff and student safety as necessary to their operation the bare minimum.

This is why the government will be given powers to monitor and enforce compliance. Providers that do not comply would face repercussions such as civil penalties, infringement notices, enforceable undertakings and injunctions. They will also be subject to public reporting on their progress against the National Code, where they will have to share data and evidence on how they are meeting the National Code’s requirements. This will be facilitated by a dedicated unit within the federal Department of Education.

What about the new National Student Ombudsman?

You might be wondering — wasn’t a National Student Ombudsman (NSO) just set up to tackle this? Yes. However, the ability of the NSO to operate effectively in relation to gender-based violence complaints will depend on the passage of the National Code. Once in force, this National Code will affect the functions of the NSO by providing a framework of how institutions should be working on this issue.

Currently, the NSO can receive complaints about gender-based violence, but its reference points to mark against continues to be the internal policies of each institution. We know this is not good enough and that without the National Code passing into legislation and being enforced, student victim-survivors do not have as much of a chance of holding their university institutions to account for their failings.

A call to action

The National Code itself did not get through the necessary legislative process to come into effect before the 2025 federal election was called. As such, it is up to the incoming Government to progress the legislation quickly once they come into power. The Code is essential because it centres on universities’ responsibility to proactively address gender-based violence, rectifying the inaction and harm we have seen in the past. We are concerned it could be forgotten by the next Government and students will have to continue bearing the burden of university inaction.

So, we have a call to action.

To higher education providers and student accommodation services: implement the standards of the National Code now, voluntarily. Demonstrate your commitment to, and responsibility for, putting student and staff safety first.

Secondly, to gender-based violence experts, advocates and organisations: join calls to the next government to support the National Code and make it a priority. Help us get this passed, holding the sector to account to do their part.

Lastly, to anyone reading this: keep gender-based violence on the agenda across all institutions and businesses. Safety should come first, everywhere and always.