University of West England
The University of the West of England, Bristol (UWE) has five campuses located across the cities of Bristol and Gloucester.
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: UWE was the first university in the UK introduce anonymous platform ‘Kooth Student’ in September 2017, which allows students to access advice and forums. The university also has an anonymous reporting form called ‘e-listening’.
- Campaigns: The students’ union run ‘End it Now’, which is a campaign to tackle abuse and harassment, of which sexual violence and domestic abuse is mentioned.
- Sexual assault advice page: There is a rape and sexual assault advice page on the students’ union website which encourages students to report the incident to the police and gives advice for preserving evidence.
- External contacts: The same web page, mentioned above, gives details of the local sexual assault referral centre as well as relevant charities.
- Other measures: The students’ union launched ‘Nightline’, a phone-based student-to-student support service, in January. It operates ‘out of hours’ (8pm-8am), every night of term, and trained volunteers answer calls and emails sent in by students about anything that’s troubling them.
Mark: 5/5
A spokesperson for the University of the West of England said: “The Vice-Chancellors of the University of the West of England (UWE Bristol) and the University of Bristol, and Presidents and Student Officers of both Students’ Unions have committed their institutions to a zero-tolerance approach to sexual violence and harassment.”