Australian universities are reporting record levels of sexual misconduct amid an unprecedented intake of international students, with the University of Sydney’s annual report revealing a near doubling of complaints.
The report from Australia’s oldest university, where almost half the student cohort is foreign, shows that 55 sexual misconduct complaints were received in 2024 – almost twice the 30 complaints received in 2023 and a 139% increase on the 23 complaints in 2022.
A ‘”complaint” is defined by the university as a report of sexual misconduct by a person who wants an investigation into the matter and specific action to be taken. Eight of the 55 complaints received were classed as sexual assaults and 47 were classified as sexual harassment.
An overall total of 231 reports of sexual misconduct were recorded at the university in 2024, a number that is slightly lower than the 246 reports recorded in 2023 but is almost double the 122 reports received the year prior.
Vice-Chancellor Mark Scott said in an email to students that the 7% increase in the ratio of complaints to disclosures “may be attributed to greater awareness of and confidence in our complaints-handling processes and a higher number of bystander complaints”, The Australian reported.
Professor Scott added: “In 2025 we have recommitted to a whole-of-institution approach for targeted action to ensure a safe and inclusive environment for all.
“Our initiatives include refining and consolidating existing preventative education programs, developing bystander training, building a network of student ambassadors, and increasing collaboration with other higher education institutions and external organisations.”
He also said there would be a “heightened focus in the coming months … to encourage anyone who may have experienced or witnessed sexual misconduct to seek support”.
Similar trends were seen at The University of Melbourne, with that institute’s annual report into sexual misconduct showing that matters involving “sexual harassment, stalking, unwelcome advances and inappropriate comments” had reached a record high.
The report by our highest-ranked university revealed a specific increase in allegations of sexual misconduct by staff. The data showed a tripling in sexual-misconduct complaints against staff, with the 7 complaints seen in 2023 rising to 21 complaints last year.
The report also noted that the school’s Safer Community Program – a plan implemented by the university to deal with issues of sexual misconduct – engaged with a total of 71 people in 2024. Of these engagements, the university revealed that “The vast majority of this group (74%) were international students [and] A majority (70%) of experiences of sexual misconduct reportedly occurred on campus”.
The university also added that this program “provided short term case management to 23 students, all of whom were women,” with seven of these women disclosing sexual assault and 16 disclosing sexual harassment.
The university further noted that “a total of six people were dismissed … in 2024 upon a finding of sexual misconduct”, another student was expelled, and “three were suspended with conditions placed on re-enrolment, and a range of penalties applied for a total of three others”.
Despite these increases, university Provost Nicola Phillips said the institute had made “significant progress” since the school’s first sexual misconduct report was published in 2021, with the university viewing the general growth in sexual misconduct as a “positive outcome of efforts to gradually build trust in our systems”.
Professor Phillips further added that the university would “decisively respond to sexual assault or sexual harassment where it is found to have occurred” and also noted that “the university leadership’s commitment to eliminating sexual misconduct remains undimmed.”
The Australian National University in Canberra and The University of NSW in Sydney also release annual sexual misconduct reports are yet to publish the results so far this year.
The current reporting on sexual misconduct at Australian universities comes after the confirmation of a longer-term trend of on-campus sexual assault.
A 2021 survey by the Social Research Centre named the National Student Safety Survey revealed that there were “unacceptable” levels of sexual violence across the nation’s universities.
The survey involved thousands of students across 39 institutes and sought to discover “the scale and nature of student experiences of sexual harassment and sexual assault” on Australian campuses.
The survey revealed that “one in six students had been sexually harassed since beginning university and one in 20 had been sexually assaulted”.
The highest rate of sexual harassment was at the Australian National University, where over a quarter (26.1%) of students reported being sexually harassed at some point during their time at university.
These findings were a shock to the sector, with Chair of Universities Australia, John Dewar, apologising to the many student-victims of sexual violence at Australian universities, while referring to the survey results as “distressing, disappointing and confronting”.
The rise in sexual misconduct at our universities occurs alongside a concurrent increase in sexual violence outside campuses and among the Australian public.
In New South Wales, for example, the sexual-assault rate has almost doubled over the last decade, rising from 66.6 sexual offences per 100,000 people in 2014 to 115.8 sexual offence in 2023.
Similar rises in sexual assault have been seen in states such as Western Australia and Queensland, with ABS figures showing that the national rate of sexual assault rose 11% in 2023.
Header image credit: Toby Hudson, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
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