OfS finds one in four undergraduate students experience sexual harassment at university
The Office for Students (OfS), an independent regulator for higher education in England, released a new analysis of its 2025 report on sexual misconduct this month, compiled from the experiences of 52,000 final-year undergraduate students. They found that 24.5% of students reported experiencing sexual harassment, such as unwanted sexually suggestive comments, exposure, or unsolicited pictures, and 14.1% of students reported experiencing sexual violence, such as unwanted touching, attempted rape, and rape.
Experiences change across student groups and contexts. Prevalence of sexual violence was higher across all subject areas for female students, students with a reported disability, and LGBTQ students. A higher share of students that reported having a mental health condition also reported experiencing sexual harassment (42.2.%). Additionally, students with an EU domicile had a higher rate of reporting (31.1%) compared to UK domicile (25.1%) or the rest of world (18.5%).
In 2021, Imperial College Union teamed up with ICUsToo, Imperial’s campaign group against sexual violence, to create an anonymous survey which gauged the prevalence of sexual misconduct at Imperial, and received over 600 responses.
30.8% of respondents reported having personally experienced sexual harassment, and of these respondents, 84.2% were women. 15% of respondents, of which 87.5% were women, reported having personally experienced sexual violence. Consistent with the OfS report, students with disabilities were more likely to experience sexual misconduct. Sexual misconduct was most likely to take place at Union bars, off-campus socials, and in halls of residence. It was found that only 18.7% of victims sought the help of support services at Imperial College, but the most common reason for not seeking support was a belief that no action would be taken.
The OfS will run a further sexual misconduct survey linked to the National Student Survey (NSS) in 2027, and it will publish institutional-level data from the 2025 and 2027 surveys together.
