Students’ help-seeking for experiences of interpersonal violence: How can universities respond?

Abstract

The prevention of interpersonal violence and abuse for students in higher educational institutions and the development of appropriate institutional responses to support those affected are at the core of the Universities UK’s Changing the Culture Report on Violence Against Women, Harassment and Hate Crime. While the provision of robust reporting and monitoring systems on-campus are thought to be essential in helping to ensure the safety of higher education students, the findings of research discussed in this article suggest that more fundamental work is needed in order to encourage students to view the University as a source of help in the event that they experience interpersonal violence, particularly when this takes place ‘off-campus’. The research, which surveyed students attending Northfacing University in England, found that help-seeking practices seem to be shaped both by the location in which interpersonal violence occurs and by whom it is perpetrated.