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A quarter of students have suffered some form of sexual harassment since entering higher education,?a major UK-wide survey has found, with prevalence far higher among certain groups and only one in?10 reporting incidents formally.

Results of a first-of-its-kind national survey run by the Office for Students show the most common form of sexual harassment experienced by students was another person ¡°making sexually suggestive looks or staring at your body¡±, which was chosen by 16.7 per cent of respondents.

Women are nearly three times more likely to experience sexual harassment than men, at 33 per cent compared?with 12.2 per cent. Lesbian, gay and bisexual students are also particularly vulnerable, with?nearly half (46.6 per cent) of them experiencing sexual harassment, compared?with 21.7 per cent of heterosexual students.?

The survey, which received 51,920 responses, is the largest of its kind ever run in English higher education and was open to all final year students across all providers.

It follows a?new condition of registration introduced by the regulator?in August that aims to protect students from unwanted sexual behaviour.

Overall, 24.5 per cent of respondents say they have experienced sexual harassment since starting their studies, with one in seven experiencing sexual violence (14.1 per cent)

Another example frequently cited was people ¡°making unwanted sexual comments or asking sexualised questions about your private life, body or physical appearance¡±.

The most frequent type of sexual assault, cited by 12 per cent of respondents, was ¡°someone touching me in a sexual manner, kissed, pinched, or rubbed up against the private areas of my body, or removed some of my clothes when I did not want them to¡±.

Susan Lapworth, chief executive of the OfS, said sexual misconduct can have a ¡°profound, even devastating, impact on students¡¯ ability to thrive and succeed¡±.

¡°The data we¡¯ve published today extends the evidence available on the prevalence of sexual misconduct. It will support institutions as they target their work to make improvements where that¡¯s needed.¡±

The OfS said it would make data available to individual institutions where there was no risk of identifying students to help them in their work to tackle harassment.

Campus resource: Addressing sexual misconduct in higher education, part one ¨C prevention

A total of 13.2 per cent of respondents who experienced sexual harassment in the preceding year made a formal report to their university or college. Women are also the most likely respondents to report misconduct, at 19 per cent compared?with 7 per cent.

Older students are much more likely to formally report incidents, with only 12.7 per cent of under-21s formally reporting incidents, compared?with 84.7 per cent of 26- to 30-year-olds, and 86.4 per cent of over 31s.

Some 1.5 per cent of respondents say they have been in a staff-student relationship in the past 12 months, with 68.8 per cent of respondents saying that the staff member had been involved with their education or assessment. A further 58.3 per cent say that the staff member had some form of non-academic professional responsibility for them.

In these cases, male students, students aged 31 and over, and students from the most?deprived areas are most likely to say that the staff member was either involved in their?education or assessment or had some non-academic professional responsibility for them.

Jo Grady, the general secretary of the University and College Union, said: ¡°These shocking figures expose just how widespread sexual harassment and assault are in our universities.

¡°There is also widespread evidence that poor working conditions and power imbalances also leave staff vulnerable to harassment and abuse.¡±

Grady called it a ¡°national scandal¡± and accused vice-chancellors of ¡°turning a blind eye¡± to the problem, adding that it demanded ¡°urgent, sector-wide reform and accountability¡±.

juliette.rowsell@timeshighereducation.com