With thousands of new students starting university this week, an advocacy group has claimed violence against women is still a major problem on campuses, and assault claims are being covered up.
The advocacy group End Rape on Campus Australia has made a submission to the Human Rights Commission which will bring down a report on the issue later this year.
Founder and director of the group, Sharna Bremner, said the submission showed the situation was dire.
“We have definitely worked with some students whose universities have tried to cover up their assaults, have tried to silence them,” she said.
“Those sorts of things are happening on a much more regular basis I think than any of us expected.
“We have had a number of staff from universities advise us these sorts of things are going on too.”
Ms Bremner said Freedom of Information requests made to both universities and police organisations showed had been 500 official complaints over the past five years.
“145 of those related specifically to rape, the others were various forms of sexual assault and harassment,” she said.
“There were only six expulsions due to these 500 official complaints.”
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The president of the University of Sydney’s Student Representative Council, Isabella Brook, said universities were failing students, especially women.