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350 13th March 2018 Issue 350
The official student newspaper of the University of East Anglia | concrete-online.co.uk
>> 135 reports in the last 5 years >> Students march to reclaim the night
Is there a sexual assault epidemic at UEA? Emily Hawkins & Sophie Bunce Editor-in-Chief and Deputy Editor The highest number of reported incidents of rape, assault and harassment at a university took place at UEA over the past five years. 135 incidents were reported at UEA, an ITV News investigation found. UEA said the higher number signifies a positive reaction to their
assault and harassment awareness campaigns. However, the accuracy of these statistics has been thrown into question, with claims there is not a clear reporting procedure. University of Surrey had the second highest number of reported instances, with 40. In response to the disparity between reported incidents at other universities, a UEA spokesperson said they are confident the much higher level of reports is an indication students feel confident to
report such incidents. “An increased rate of reporting is a positive sign that people feel more confident about reporting improper sexual conduct. “It is generally recognised that when organisations take steps to raise awareness of improper sexual conduct and encourage individuals to make reports that this leads to a significant spike in the number of complaints,” they said. UEA expresses a zero tolerance approach to sexual harassment on campus with a Never OK scheme,
through partnering with the students’ union. In the three years prior to the scheme the university received 38 complaints of sexual improper sexual conduct. Since the implementation of Never OK, the level of complaints rose by 97. The university said: "It is therefore possible to see a connection between the complaint volume and the impact of our activities around Changing the Culture. The University of Cambridge
received 173 complaints in the nine months following the introduction of its Breaking the Silence campaign, similar to UEA’s Never OK campaign. The university said, due to the nature of anonymous complaints, a single incident can result in multiple reports. “It would therefore not be accurate to regard the total number of complaints as being equivalent
January were on average 41 days, with the Student Support Service aiming to reduce this to 30. Waiting times for Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) did not fare much better, with a wait time of 24 days compared to an aim of 20. One second-year Politics student said: “I’ve been waiting since the beginning of January for
counselling sessions, the process as a whole is very disappointing and has started to affect my studies.” Another said that she had been advised to seek help from the service but is “reluctant because of the lengthy wait times and poor feedback from other students,” adding, “statistics like this only prove this to be true.”
SU Welfare Community and Diversity Officer Officer India Edwards said the figures were shocking. “Whilst the Uni told Concrete in January that wait times were ‘falling’, stats show students are still having to wait over 60 days to get help, with over a hundred sat on a waiting list.
“Not only does this fall short of the promises we’ve had over the past two years about SSS, it’s also much worse than most similar Universities- and won’t even cover the students who know the service isn’t up to scratch and are suffering
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University say "still more to do" on counselling waits
Shannon McDonagh Senior News Reporter The Student Support Service has faced further criticism after statistics covering the first month of this year showed no progress in an expected increase in standards. Waiting times for counselling in
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