A new student safety watchdog will be stood up to oversee how universities handle sexual assaults and complaints following a scathing report lambasting the sector for a lack of oversight.
Education ministers ticked off on an action plan to tackle gender-based violence at universities when they met in Melbourne on Friday.
The independent ombudsman will allow higher education students to escalate complaints about the actions of their provider, including complaints about sexual harassment, assault and violence.
It will be able to consider whether decisions and actions taken by universities are unreasonable, unjust, oppressive or discriminatory and respond to complaints if there are delays.
The ombudsman will be able to recommend the university take specific steps to resolve the complaint or share information with relevant regulators.
Additionally, it will offer a restorative engagement process, whereby a person who has disclosed a sexual assault meets senior leaders of the institution to tell their story, including details about the abuse and the impact it’s had.
Legislation will be prepared to put the reform in place.
A national code for higher education providers to prevent and respond to gender-based violence will also be created.
“Not enough has been done to tackle sexual violence in our universities and for too long students haven’t been heard – that now changes,” federal Education Minister Jason Clare said.
“The National Student Ombudsman will be independent and have the powers to investigate complaints and resolve disputes with universities.”
Consent education needed to be integrated at all levels of education, Dr Fiona Martin said.
Education should also go beyond sexual consent and cover respectful relationships as well, Dr Martin said.
“It should be across the lifespan of education from early learning right through to universities – it shouldn’t just be schools,” the child psychologist told AAP.
“It’s respectful relationships as well, it’s protective behaviours, how you interact with people.
“What that means is teaching children it’s their body, empowering children from a very young age to say when they feel uncomfortable, teaching them what’s private, so they can say ‘no’, so they know what’s normal.”
This was especially important with the ubiquity of online communication and increasing use of digital platforms such as dating apps, she said.
“More young people are engaging in sexual assault against each other than we thought, it’s quite horrific and it’s intertwined with the digital world,” Dr Martin said.
“A lot of the communication starts online and transfers to the real world.”
A parliamentary inquiry found the way the university sector handled sexual assault complaints was woefully inadequate and it could not be trusted with reform without independent oversight.
It found the university sector failed to adequately respond to sexual assaults with victim-survivors saying the follow-up process could be worse than the rape.
Parliamentarians from all sides of politics said they had lost faith in unis being able to fix the problem without independent oversight.
The ministers were also briefed on the university accord, which contains recommendations and targets to assess the tertiary education sector’s quality, accessibility and affordability.
The accord, which has been received by the federal minister, is set to be released imminently.
Lifeline 13 11 14
Fullstop Australia 1800 385 578
1800 RESPECT (1800 737 732)
National Sexual Abuse and Redress Support Service 1800 211 028
This post was originally published on Michael West.
