Report of research exploring first-year undergraduates’ awareness, confidence to intervene, and intervention behaviours with regard to sexual and domestic abuse on campus and evaluation of an optional 2 hour bystander programme

Bovill, Helen

Abstract

From 2010 national research clarified that sexual and domestic abuse was an issue for university students (e.g. National Union of Students 2011 ‘Hidden Marks’ and 2012 ‘That’s what she said’). Me too, Time’s Up and Everyday sexism project demonstrated that this is a societal issue with universities being a microcosm of this. More recently, the student fronted campaign Revolt Sexual Assault (2018: 1) conducted a national survey finding: ‘Of the 4,500 students from 153 different institutions who took part in this survey, 62% have experienced sexual violence at UK universities.’
UWE has been at the forefront in confronting this societal issue. In 2014 researchers from UWE developed an 8 hour bystander programme (Fenton et al., 2014) and conducted ‘a review of evidence for bystander intervention to prevent sexual and domestic violence in universities’ (Fenton et al., 2016) which was commissioned by Public Health England. Since then UWE has been continuing this work having won two Office for Students bids to create an inclusive campus and to improve reporting and supporting mechanisms. Through these funds UWE has launched the Speak Up campaign, which aims: ‘to create an inclusive campus where diversity is celebrated, antisocial attitudes and behaviours are challenged and any type of harassment, assault and discrimination aren't acceptable.’ To deliver a successful campaign following the whole-university approach, UWE Bristol has created strong partnerships with the Students’ Union at UWE, students from across campuses, UWE professional and academic services and local charities: Bristol Zero Tolerance, Somerset and Avon Rape and Sexual Abuse Support, and Stand Against Racism and Inequality. This report acknowledges their help and support throughout development of all materials which have in part led to this ongoing research.
The research reported here is an extension of this work but is not funded by any external bodies. The research on which this report is based has been conducted by Dr Helen Bovill and supported by UWE. This research consists of two surveys sent out to first year incoming undergraduates in September 2018 and then again in February 2019. It also consists of a pilot evaluation of a 2 hour bystander programme developed by Bovill et al., (2018).

• Report Type: Technical Report
• Publication Date: Aug 1, 2019
• Deposit Date: Aug 7, 2019
• Publicly Available Date: Aug 16, 2019
• Pages: 1-52
• Public URL: https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/1951590
• Contract Date: Aug 7, 2019