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*Trigger warning for discussion on sexual violence*

There is a national crisis of sexual assault on campus and currently many univesrities are letting student survivors down by having inaccessible and inappropriate reporting systems and not providing the support needed. Which is why NUS Women’s campaign with Rape Crisis England & Wales launched the #StandByMe campaign on 25 November 2015 to coincide with the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women. We called for institutions to reject the Zellick guidelines and join us in calling for a consultation including the student movement and specialist services for the creation of new robust reporting and disciplinary guidelines and survivor support.

Armed with purple felt squares, megaphones and resources we’ve been supporting students’ unions and activists to challenge their systems on their campus and call for better support for student survivors. And on a national level we’ve been lobbying the Universities UK (UUK) Taskforce on violence against women, harassment and hate crime on campus to adopt the recommendations that students have worked together to create.

In April 2016, we launched the #StandByMe consultation to collect students’ unions' views of what should be in place to support students who are affected by sexual assault, which you can read here. We have also combined the results of the consultation into a short manifesto which outlines our recommendations to UUK Taskforce, in order to better support student survivors, and for students’ unions to use to lobby the leadership of their institutions.

Objective 1: Scrap the Zellick Report

In 1994, a piece of guidance on student disciplinary procedures - commonly known as the Zellick Report - was published. The UUK taskforce on violence against women, harassment and hate crime affecting university students met for the second time on 16 March 2016 and agreed to review the guidelines. The final report from the Taskforce is due by autumn 2016.

Objective 2: #StandByMe Partnership Scheme 

We want to improve access to services for survivors on campus and support the work that local Rape Crisis centres do. We’ve created this toolkit with Rape Crisis to help students’ unions create partnership agreements with their local Rape Crisis centres with the aim of sharing resources and developing joint services, pathways and activities.

Objective 3: #StandByMe Workshops - Disclosure Training

We’ve created a disclosure workshop with Rape crisis England and Wales. These workshops aim to enable students to be able to: understand rape culture and its effects; learn practical tips to respond to disclosures; signpost survivors to relevant services and look after their own wellbeing while supporting a survivor.

Campaign Resources

Survivor Support Resources

NUS Blogs