How can universities support student safety in the night-time economy?

On top of the typical student pressures of making friends, keeping up with studies and navigating a new environment, many students face and fear public sexual harassment and gender-based violence as part of their university experience.

But universities should be places of safety, never fear. To ensure that students have safe access to education and freedom within their community, universities need to address student safety in the night-time economy and public spaces.

Public sexual harassment is any instance of unwelcome attention, sexual advances or intimidating behaviour in public spaces – whether online or in person.

While it’s usually directed towards women and other oppressed groups within society, public sexual harassment can be experienced by anyone – no two experiences are the same.

Crucially, public sexual harassment can be affected by, and co-occur with, other forms of oppression, such as racism, transphobia, homophobia and ableism.

Just as public sexual harassment has become normalised throughout society, universities are no exception. Our Street Now's joint survey with The Tab found that nearly one in four students, and specifically 43% of women and non-binary students, have experienced public sexual harassment. What’s more, 77% of students have felt unsafe at clubs and bars because of it.

Within the night-time economy, spiking is a particular point of concern – with recent reports of injection spiking hitting the headlines – and is something 53% of non-binary students worry about every night out.

In our work, we've heard from students who lack trust in how universities deal with public sexual harassment and sexual assault claims. Just 14% of women and non-binary students feel comfortable sharing their experiences of public sexual harassment, while only 13% would feel comfortable sharing instances of sexual assault.

Not only does the lack of trust in reporting services create distance between students and their institutions, but it prevents students from accessing crucial support following instances of sexual and gender-based violence.

The first few weeks of university has been found to be the most high risk time for cases of sexual assault to occur, meaning student safety needs to be of concern from day one.

Universities need to focus on prevention through education and cultural change, rather than policies that handle incidents after they've happened.

This can be done by:

Having recently been an undergraduate myself, I entered this sector on the back of a set of life-changing experiences that have inspired me to lobby for improved student safety.

While I’m proud of Our Streets Now's work, my hope is that those with the power to prevent sexual harassment step up and take the mantle from individuals who, for too long, have had the burden of being both survivors and activists.

We are starting to see a slow change in the tide with some universities leading the way in tackling sexual misconduct, but we still have a long way to go.

Sexual harassment limits our freedom and creates academic barriers that prevent us from achieving our full potential.

We are students, not objects, and we deserve to be treated as such.