Months on from the horrific killings of Sabina Nessa and Sarah Everard, and a number of weeks since the gruesome spectre of drugged drinks made headlines, over half of female students still say they avoid nights out for fear of sexual violence and harassment.
Amid a national push to end violence against women and girls, more than 1,300 students – more than 80 per cent female – responded to a survey by youth news site The Tab and campaign group Our Streets Now.
And just one in 20 say they would report a sexual assault to their university – despite a quarter having experienced it themselves.
In the wake of students boycotting nightclubs around the country in October after widespread reports of drink spiking, one in five students said they’d been spiked on a night out in the survey, and nine in 10 said they worried about it happening to them.
Writing for The Big Issue, Girls Night In co-founder Joscelin Story said young women “have been expected to be the sole arbiter of their own safety. Girls who are just looking for a night out are told to cover their drinks and not take their eyes off of their friends.”
This week, the Law Commission has recommended that public sexual harassment be made a crime. But eight out of 10 students said they did not currently know where to report this, or sexual assault, to their university.