People who were sexually assaulted in a university context who sought help from the university

1.3 Systems and institutions are culturally safe, accessible, inclusive, trauma- informed and centre lived experience.

Increased confidence and trust in the systems and institutions to respond to GBV and keep communities safe.

Proportion of people who were sexually assaulted in a university context, who sought support or assistance from the university.

An increase in the proportion of people who seek assistance from universities for sexual assault will indicate improved confidence and trust in institutional responses. 
This measure captures only a proportion of formal responses provided by systems and institutions, but it can provide useful context when monitoring how responses are changing across different areas over time. It is intended to complement data from other areas and is not intended to represent all systems and institutions.
Sexual assault is also one form of sexual violence. Data should be considered alongside related data on sexual harassment.

2021

Number of students who had experienced sexual assault who made a formal report or complaint to their university.

Data element: Person—made a complaint
Data source: NSSS
Data source type: Survey

Number of students who had experienced sexual assault.

Data element: Person—experience assault
Data source: NSSS
Data source type: Survey

This measure is expressed as a proportion of those who experienced sexual assault.

100,000 x (Numerator/Denominator)

Not available for first release.

The NSSS collects information from students aged 18 years and over studying at an Australian university. 
The NSSS defines sexual assault as any unwanted sexual acts or sexual contact that happened in circumstances where a person was either forced, threatened, pressured, tricked, or no effort was made to check whether there was agreement to the act, including in circumstances where a person was asleep or affected by drugs or alcohol. 
Sexual acts and contact included those that may constitute either sexual assault and/or rape in Australian states and territories such as pinching, grabbing or fondling of a person’s sexual body parts, sexual kissing, and/or any sexual penetration (whether oral, vaginal or anal).
Students were asked if they sought support or assistance from within the university, such as from counselling services, campus security, someone in their faculty or school (lecturer or tutor), someone from their residential college/dorm/house, student leader (e.g. Women’s Office or President of a Student Union or Guild), or someone else associated with the university.

In 2021, a total of 43,819 student participated in the survey for a completion rate of 11.6%
For some population groups, numbers may be too small to be reported on separately.
Where the RSE for numbers and estimates is between 25% and 50%, this will be indicated in the data visualisation and any accompanying data tables. Where the RSE is greater than 50%, the data will not be published.
The NSSS survey is not considered representative of university students aged as it used a convenience sample based on voluntary survey completion and online recruitment and completion.