Learning from survivors: Reporting parties' perspectives on how higher education institutions should address gender-based violence and harassment

Abstract

Tackling gender-based violence and harassment (GBVH) is an essential step for addressing gender inequality. This article applies theories of student/survivor ‘voice’ to accounts from interviewees (n = 35), analysing their perspectives on how higher education institutions (HEIs) should address this issue. Interviewees were current or former students in the United Kingdom who had disclosed or reported GBVH to their HEIs. The most urgent step that interviewees called for is open discussion of GBVH and how HEIs are handling it. They also want more education, prevention and early intervention, and changes in how reports are handled. These findings are contextualised within a critical discussion of how reporting parties' voices are, or could be, heard within higher education. It argues that institutional mechanisms for hearing survivors' voice in relation to GBVH may need to differ from approaches for engaging with students on other issues, most notably by taking into account how power relations shape voices.