Sexual assault claims ‘mishandled’ by universities

Women from 15 universities have signed a letter signing a mandatory policy for dealing with allegations of sexual assault in higher education. The women said their allegations of sexual assault by their universities were being handled incorrectly.

Currently, it is not mandatory for higher education institutions to implement a specific policy to deal with allegations of sexual assault.

Universities UK said ‘all universities have policies and practices in place’.
He added that it has created guidelines to support the sector and that universities have accelerated efforts to address misconduct in recent years.

Samantha Kilford (23) from Neath is one of the women from across the UK who signed the letter. She said she was sexually assaulted during the first week by a student at the University of the West of England (UWE).
“The investigation took a year. It dragged on and felt very mysterious. It felt like they were waiting for me to give up,” she said.

“It also felt like they were protecting him. In the investigation, they even gave him the opportunity to question me about what I told them. He knew everything I said, but I had no idea what his answers were. was not.

“The most frustrating thing is that I still do not know what the result of the investigation was. They told me I may not know. They just said the complaint is being maintained and that is it.”

In response, the UWE said that data protection legislation ‘prevents the university from sharing all the details of the final result’ and that it ‘does not allow direct interrogation between the alleged offender and the student who reported the incident’.

It is also said to take a “zero-tolerance approach to sexual harassment and misconduct”, and would “like to talk directly to the reporting student concerned about her experience, any recommendations on how we can improve our practice, and our protocol in the case outcomes ”.