Australian National University releases tender for residency review

The university was last year revealed as one of the nation's worst for sexual violence in a survey of students released by the Australian Human Rights Commission.

Publicly the ANU's response has focused on student safety. But background notes prepared for consultants make clear the institution's concerns that student demand, residence tenancy numbers and staff recruitment could suffer should the university "gain a reputation as providing an unsafe environment".

"Breaches of safety and security pose a genuine risk, not only to the individual, but to the university," the tender said.

"Students subject to acts of violence or aggression are at risk of academic failure, or of dropping out of their degree program. This impacts on the academic reputation of the university but also on revenue ... where a student fails to complete his or her program."

" ... [potential impacts include] student demand may fall, resulting in a drop in student revenue and a decline in the quality on enrolling students; difficulty in filling the student residences, noting that the university has a high proportion of students in residence on campus; and difficulty in recruiting staff."

ANU pro vice-chancellor for university experience Richard Baker said student safety was at the forefront of the university's response to the Change the Course report and pointed to the review's nine draft terms of reference, which focus on residences' culture, alcohol abuse and existing education and intervention strategies.

"Our focus is always on the safety of students and that's the foremost thing driving us in this regard, but we have an obligation when we're drawing up contracts to be explicit about all the possible risks and threats to the university and that's obviously one, so we can't pretend that's not an issue," Professor Baker said.

"Our focus has always been on trying to stop incidents occurring and then to respond as quickly and as most appropriately as possible when incidents do occur so we always have those two focuses on what we do."

The ANU's five student halls, two houses, University House and Graduate House, two affiliate colleges and four lodges will be placed under the microscope during the review.

The draft terms of reference include that the review examine residence culture and how it contributes or discourages perpetrators of sexual assault and harassment, residential "traditions", and how perpetrators "facilitate" sexual violence in a residential setting.

The document was prepared in consultation with ANU staff and students.

Prospective consultants are expected to submit their application by early April, but final deadlines and costs for the review will be unknown until the successful tenderer is announced.

Meanwhile, the ANU has updated its discipline rule to include definitions of sexual assault and harassment, including provisions for revenge porn.

This means the university can now treat allegations of sexual violence as misconduct, though clauses within the relevant legislation say the ANU may not act upon complaints where its believes there's insufficient evidence, if the conduct is deemed to be unrelated to the university or if a criminal investigation in under way.

A review by consultancy firm Rapid Context released this year found it was unclear how the university could respond to allegations of sexual assault within its existing policies.

The ANU has also introduced new training for staff and students based on preventing and responding to sexual assault, beefed up its counselling services and employed a dedicated respectful relationships project manager to assist in progressing its commitments to stop sexual violence.

The Canberra Rape Crisis Centre this year applauded the university on its efforts to effect cultural change.

If you or someone you know is impacted by sexual assault or family violence, call the Canberra Rape Crisis Centre on 02 6247 2525. Nationally, call 1800RESPECT on 1800 737 732. In an emergency contact 000.