Australian institutions aim for open policy on sexual-assault data.
The vice-chancellors of Australia's 39 universities have pledged to release data on sexual assaults and harassment at their institutions. Belinda Robinson, chief executive of Universities Australia in Deakin, which represents the nation's institutions, said on 6 April that data relating to individual institutions would be released in mid-2017, the same time as an independent report about student experiences of sexual assault and harassment. The report is being compiled by the Australian Human Rights Commission and will include recommendations for action and reform. As part of its research, the commission is examining how individual universities responded to specific incidents. In a February submission to the commission, the Australian branch of the advocacy group End Rape on Campus accused universities of covering up sexual assaults. Responding to students' dismay over the slow pace of change, sex-discrimination commissioner Kate Jenkins wrote in an opinion piece published on 5 April in the Sydney Morning Herald: “We absolutely share these concerns.”
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Harassment: University transparency. Nature 544, 511 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1038/nj7651-511a
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nj7651-511a