University of Sussex

Located on the outskirts of Falmer, Brighton.

We ranked all 29 universities in the south of England against the following best practice criteria to assess how well each institution raises awareness of help available to survivors and encourages them to report. Other marks are given for campaigns and extra measures which show the university’s engagement with preventing and responding to sexual assault. Each received a mark out of 5.

Anonymous form: The students’ union has an anonymous reporting form as part of their zero tolerance policy on sexual assault and harassment.
Campaigns: The students’ union ran ‘16 Days of Action’ and ‘I Heart Consent’ to raise awareness and reduce sexual misconduct on university premises.
Sexual assault advice page: There is a designated page under ‘Health and Wellbeing’ on the university website. It gives emergency contacts, advice on next steps for survivors, and help and support. Students can also access these details via the ‘Help’ tab on the university app. The university also developed a booklet titled ‘Let’s talk about sex and relationships’ which is given to every new student and is also available at the students’ union.
External contacts: The same page mentioned above lists external help, including the local sexual assault referral centre, local charities and medical support.
Other measures: The university funds two Consent Coordinator roles within the Students’ Union. They also ran healthy relationship training for students this year. The University has a ‘Consent and Preventing Sexual Violence’ forum chaired by the Deputy Pro-Vice Chancellor for Equalities, Diversity and Inclusion. This group have committed to continue consent and healthy relationships workshops throughout the year. The University has also committed to developing new informational web pages for students around the prevention of sexual violence and information on where to go for support.

Mark: 5/5

University of Sussex
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