Call for action at Edinburgh University over students' rape claims
- Published
Student leaders have called on Edinburgh University to step up its efforts to deal with sexual violence.
It comes after more than 100 student accounts of rape, sexual assault and harassment were published online.
The university said about 15 to 20 incidents of sexual abuse on campus were reported every year.
It said it had been taking action, including training student leaders and appointing a sexual violence and harassment manager to offer support.
The accounts have been published on the Everyone's Invited website and on an Instagram profile set up by a student.
The Everyone's Invited website has received 11,500 anonymous testimonies from survivors of violence and abuse since it was launched. Hundreds have been published on the website - with 13 of those directly linked to Edinburgh University, which appears more often than most other universities in the UK.
The website calls them "testimonies". One testimony alleged five friends had "been raped by this one boy in Pollock Halls". It added: "He makes them drink a lot of alcohol and then when they pass out, he has sex with them without a condom. Nobody is doing anything to help."
'Triggers huge anxiety in me'
Another also mentions university accommodation Pollock Halls. It reads: "This first term at university in Pollock Halls I was raped by a boy in my block after a night out.
"He forced me to undress and had sex with me even though he could see I was very uncomfortable and upset.
"I did not tell anyone as I was terrified it would come back on me for being an attention seeker. I still see him round sometimes and it triggers huge anxiety in me."
Other students write about being raped or sexually assaulted and then having to see their attacker on campus.
Two wrote that they were so traumatised by this that they stopped going to classes.
The @EdiAnon account has been sharing students' experiences online
The @EdiAnonymous account was set up on Instagram last summer by an Edinburgh student who asked the BBC to call her Ellie.
Since then, she has received 101 accounts from her fellow students - detailing allegations from sexual harassment to rape.
One account reads, external: "I said no - he didn't listen. I said no again. He didn't listen and just continued. At some point, I stopped saying no and reluctantly waited for it to be over... It took me years for me to realise this was rape."
"He locked me in his living room and was pressuring me to do things I didn't want to do", another student wrote, external.
Another account, external details a woman who wakes up to find her date having sex with her - despite explicitly saying she did not want to before going to sleep.
Only one of the 101 accounts she has received mentioned going to the police, Ellie added.
She told BBC Scotland: "The University of Edinburgh are really doing their best and they've made huge improvements this year, but I think everyone knows that there's still far to come, there's still so much more that could be done."
Ellie believes every new student should be taught about consent as soon as they arrive at university.
Niamh McCrossan said there was a problem at Edinburgh University with sexual violence
Niamh McCrossan, from the Edinburgh Uni Students' Association, said "there definitely is a problem here if students have taken to the internet to say these things" She said she was not surprised to see the testimonies from Edinburgh University students.
It was unfortunate that students did not feel supported, she added, despite the university making "major progress" to deal with the issue.
"The university needs to ask itself - are they investing enough resources in this? Have they missed an opportunity to support students? I think that if students are having a negative experience then there definitely is a problem and we need to make sure that we are meeting the needs of these students," she added.
Last year, the university announced it was appointing a sexual harassment and violence liaison manager, to act as a single point of contact for staff and students affected by sexual violence.
It also said it was giving student leaders bystander intervention training and hoped to eventually extend that to every student.
Late last year a support worker from Edinburgh Rape Crisis Centre was given the task of helping students from all four universities in the capital.
And Edinburgh University is launching a new software platform for students to report incidents and hopes will more will come forward as a result.
Responding to the testimonies posted online, the university's deputy secretary Gavin Douglas said: "The allegations are really distressing and disturbing to read. But on the other hand, they are not necessarily surprising.
"We know that there's a challenge with sexual violence on campus and in society. We have got 30-40,000 students, and we recognise that some of those students don't behave well.
"We are really committed to tackling that, to dealing with the problems when they crop up, and to try to stamp out the behaviour before it even starts.
"I don't think we can shy away from it.. We have to start by being honest that we have a problem. I don't think we have a disproportionate problem in the sense that we are worse than other universities or are worse than society in general."
Maggie Chapman, of the Edinburgh Rape Crisis Centre, said culture change had to happen everywhere - not just on university campuses.
"Across the rape crisis network, we would be delighted to see further investment in prevention work at every institution across Scotland," she added.
- Published15 March 2021
