Released 23 March 2022

This survey was funded by Universities Australia (UA) through
its Respect. Now. Always. initiative.

The development, implementation and analysis of the NSSS was undertaken between August 2019 and January 2022. The NSSS was initially planned to be piloted in March-April 2020. A total of 43,819 students participated in the survey
during this period.

The NSSS found many university students had experienced sexual harassment in their lifetime. One in two (48.0%) students had experienced sexual harassment at least once in their lifetime. Female students (62.9%), transgender students (62.8%) and students who were non-binary or identified as another gender (76.8%) were more likely to have experienced sexual harassment in their lifetime than male students (26.0%).

In an Australian university context, one in six (16.1%) students had been sexually harassed since starting at university and one in twelve (8.1%) had been sexually harassed in the past 12 months. Female students (10.5%), transgender students (14.7%) and non-binary students (22.4%) were more
likely to have had these experiences in a university context in the past 12 months when compared with male students (3.9%).

The NSSS found one in three university students (30.6%) had experienced sexual assault at least once.
Female students (41.8%), transgender students (42.9%) and students who were non-binary or identified
as another gender (56.1%) were more likely to have experienced sexual assault in their lifetime than male
students (14.1%).

In addition to gender, the prevalence of sexual harassment and sexual assault in a university context in the past 12 months varied by a range of other student demographic characteristics, including sexuality diverse students, younger students and students with disability. (From the Executive summary). Record #7566