Vice Chancellors should take direct responsibility for the implementation of these recommendations, including decision-making and monitoring and evaluation of actions taken. To assist and advise them in this respect, Vice-Chancellors should have an advisory body within their institution which has responsibility for guiding the implementation of the recommendations made in this report. The advisory body should report directly to the Vice-Chancellor of each university and include representation from:

• The university’s senior leadership
• The student body
• Academic staff
• Residential colleges affiliated with the university
• Student services, such as: counselling services, medical services and campus security, and
• Frontline sexual assault services.

The advisory body should be responsible for developing an action plan for the implementation of these recommendations.

The development of an action plan should involve broad and extensive consultation with all relevant stakeholders from the university community and, where relevant, the wider community. The advisory body should also seek independent expertise where relevant and draw on existing research and best practice.

The advisory body should assess and publicly report on the university’s progress towards implementation of these recommendations within 18 months of the release of this report. From then on, public reporting on progress should occur on an annual basis.

Universities develop a plan for addressing the drivers of sexual assault and sexual harassment that:

• Provides students and staff with education about: behaviours that constitute sexual assault and sexual harassment, consent, and respectful relationships, ‘violence supportive attitudes’ and bystander intervention, and
• Identifies existing resources and communications campaigns that reinforce key messages of education programs for dissemination to staff and students.

Education programs and communications should:

• Target all levels of the organisation – current and future students, staff, residential colleges, public transport to/from university, sports clubs, student societies and student unions
• Be based on best practice and research
• Be developed and delivered by individuals and/or organisations with expertise in sexual violence prevention
• Be developed in consultation with university students, and
• Include measures for evaluating and refining the actions taken.

In order to ensure students and staff know about support services and reporting processes for sexual assault or sexual harassment, universities should:

• Widely disseminate information about university reporting avenues to staff and students
• Widely disseminate information about internal and external services to staff and students, including: university counselling and medical services, campus security, local sexual assault services, police, medical centres, hospitals, counselling services and anti-discrimination agencies
• Ensure that information about internal and external services reporting procedures and support services is displayed clearly, in a logical place[s] on the university website
• Ensure that information about internal and external services reporting procedures and support services is provided to students as part of their orientation into university and to new staff as part of their human resources induction/on-boarding
• Ensure that information about internal and external reporting procedures and support services is accessible to all students and staff, including: people with disability, people from CALD backgrounds, and
• Develop relationships with external services (local sexual assault service, local hospital) to enable referral of students to these services where necessary.

Universities should evaluate the activities undertaken to increase awareness of support services and reporting processes to ensure that these measures have been effective in increasing awareness among staff and students.

In order to ensure that actions taken by universities to prevent and respond to sexual assault and sexual harassment are appropriate, within a year of the release of this report, universities should commission an independent, expert-led review of existing university policies and response pathways in relation to sexual assault and sexual harassment. This review should assess the effectiveness of existing university policies and pathways and make specific recommendations to universities about best practice responses to sexual assault and sexual harassment.

In the interim, and at an institutional level, universities should draw on sexual violence counselling expertise to develop and review processes for responding to sexual assault and sexual harassment of students to ensure that they:

• Secure the immediate safety and wellbeing of the individual who has experienced the sexual assault or sexual harassment
• Are clear and accessible
• Provide individuals with control over what happens to their report
• Have the flexibility to suit individual circumstances
• Provide students with support to continue with their studies
• Provide specialist support, from someone who has specialist expertise and training in sexual assault, sexual harassment and trauma counselling of sexual assault survivors, and
• Accommodate the needs of students from a diverse range of backgrounds.

Universities should conduct an assessment to identify staff members and student representatives within their institution most likely to receive disclosures of sexual assault and sexual harassment.

Universities should ensure that these staff members and student representatives receive training in responding to disclosures of sexual assault and sexual harassment, delivered by an organisation with specialist expertise in this area.

Universities should ensure that information about individual disclosures and reports of sexual assault and sexual harassment is collected and stored confidentially and used for continuous improvement of processes, including:

• details of the complaint/incident
• steps taken to respond to the complaint/incident, i.e.: whether the individual reported to police, whether the perpetrator was moved to a different lecture/tutorial
• support or assistance received, i.e.: whether the person received counselling from university services, whether they reported to police, whether they received support from an external sexual assault service
• time taken to respond to the report and/or refer the person to support services, and
• any feedback provided by the complainant/respondent in relation to the process

Access to this information should be limited to staff members with responsibility for responding to disclosures and reports and those responsible for improving university responses to disclosures and reports.

On a regular basis - at least every six months – Vice-Chancellors should be provided with de-identified reports of this data, including any trends or identifiable concerns which arise, along with recommendations for any necessary improvements to processes.

Within six months of this report, but as soon as possible, universities should conduct an audit of university counselling services to assess:

• The capacity of university counselling services to respond to students requests for counselling in an appropriately timely manner, and
• How many university counselling staff have received training in working with sexual assault survivors.

As part of this audit, universities should collect data on:

• The average length of time students are required to wait to see a university counsellor, and
• The number of urgent/crisis requests for counselling received.
• This data should be assessed to determine whether additional counselling services are required to meet the urgent needs of students who have experienced sexual assault or harassment. If additional counselling services are required, universities should ensure that these additional resources are in place as soon as practicable.

Universities should engage an independent body to conduct the National university student survey of sexual assault and sexual harassment at three yearly intervals to track progress in reducing the prevalence of these incidents at a sector-wide level.

In addition to considering the implementation of the university recommendations made in this report, residential colleges and university residences should commission an independent, expert-led review of the factors which contribute to sexual assault and sexual harassment in their settings.

This review should consider:

• Appropriate responses by a college or university residence to reports of sexual assault and sexual harassment
• A trauma-informed and rights-based approach in a situation in which an allegation of sexual assault has been made
• The ways that hazing practices and college 'traditions' facilitate a culture which may increase the likelihood of sexual violence
• The role of alcohol in facilitating a culture which may increase the likelihood of sexual violence
• The level and nature of supervision in a twenty-four hour residential setting in which large numbers of young people are living away from home, and
• The level and adequacy of training required to equip residential advisors to serve as first responders or in response to matters sexual assault and harassment.