Survey of sexual misconduct - 2023 pilot
This page contains details of our 2023 pilot survey of sexual misconduct. Read more about our 2025 sexual misconduct survey.
In 2023, we developed and ran a pilot survey to understand how widespread sexual misconduct in the higher education sector was and learn more about the context in which incidents occur.
The pilot survey covered a broad cross-section of higher education students at a selection of English universities.
It asked students about their experiences of sexual misconduct while at university.
It explored how these experiences affected their studies, and their experiences of the reporting mechanisms that providers have in place.
It was also designed to test the process for administering a national-level prevalence survey in English higher education.
Evaluation
The survey also aimed to inform the design and approach of a potential future wide-scale prevalence survey. Its objectives were:
- develop and test a set of questions to measure the prevalence of sexual misconduct
- develop an approach to a national provider-level prevalence survey
- develop a prevalence estimate and understand the outputs by key respondent characteristics.
We have since evaluated the pilot survey against its objectives. We have also published a series of outputs from the pilot survey project which should be viewed alongside them.
Explore the data
We have also published the aggregated data of the providers who volunteered to take part in the survey.
We have published these as an interactive dashboard.
Advisory group
Throughout the process we worked with an advisory group made up of academic and practitioner experts. Members of the advisory group included:
| Name | Role |
|---|---|
| Dr. Anna Bull | Lecturer in Education and Social Justice, University of York |
| Dr. Bridget Steele | Postdoctoral Fellow, Dalhousie University and the University of Oxford |
| Clarissa J. DiSantis Humphreys | Sexual Misconduct Prevention and Response Manager, Durham University |
| Dr. David Humphreys | Associate Professor of Evidence-Based Intervention and Policy Evaluation, University of Oxford |
| David Malpas | Director of Student Affairs, Middlesex University |
| Prof. Graham Towl | Professor of Forensic Psychology, Durham University |
| Jayne Aldridge | Director for the Student Experience, University of Sussex |
| Dr. Louise Livesey | Senior Lecturer in Criminology, University of Gloucestershire |
| Dr. Marian Duggan | Senior Lecturer in Criminology, University of Kent |
| Prof. Matt Fossey | Professor of Public Services Research, Anglia Ruskin University |
| Nkechi Adeboye | Postgraduate Student, London School of Economics |
| Sarah d’Ambrumenil | Head of the Office of Student Conduct, Complaints and Appeals, University of Cambridge |
- The University of Essex
- Northumbria University
- De Montfort University
- The University of Westminster
- Buckinghamshire New University
- SAE Institute
- University for the Creative Art
- Richmond American University London
- St Mary's University
- Hartpury University and College
- Arts University Plymouth
- University of Roehampton
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