September University of Galway Active* Consent urges new targets for consent education and violence prevention

Active* Consent reports on research and impact in 2023/24 

Programme calls on the Further and Higher Education and Training sectors to set firm targets for education and prevention 

Active* Consent wants every student and staff member prepared to respond to consent, sexual violence and harassment. 

The Active* Consent programme based at University of Galway has called for the Further and Higher Education and Training sectors to set firm targets for consent education and sexual violence prevention among students and staff. 

 The programme has released a report on its work over the 2023-2024 academic year with almost 25,000 First Year students in Higher Education engaging with the Active* Consent orientation resource.  

 Active* Consent marked the report launch at an event in Dublin, with calls for institutions in the Higher Education and Further Education and Training sector to ensure that: 

• At least 80% of incoming Higher Education students engage with consent education during their orientation or induction.
• Further Education and Training learners should be supported to have access to the same level of consent education as is available for students in Higher Education.
• All students receive consent education and sexual violence prevention at multiple points during their third level experience.
• All staff engage in awareness-raising and training activities.

 Professor Pádraig MacNeela from the School of Psychology at University of Galway said: “A lot of progress has been made in Further and Higher Education in recent years, but the time has come for these sectors to set firm targets for consent education and sexual violence prevention. Every student and staff member needs to be adequately prepared to address consent, sexual violence, and harassment in a meaningful and lasting way.”  

 Dr Siobhán O’Higgins, Education and Training Co-Lead on the Active* Consent programme, said: “Student feedback on Active* Consent education resources supports the argument that consent education should be rolled out to everyone who comes to college, backed up by campus campaigns and staff training.”  

• Active* Consent in the 2023-2024 academic year

 Active* Consent’s programme ethos is that consent is ongoing, mutual, and freely given, for all relationships, genders and orientations. Its education model promotes a community-wide culture of consent using brief messaging, workshops, arts-based interventions, specialised staff training and research. 

 The Active* Consent orientation resource 

Almost 25,000 First Year students in Higher Education engaged with the Active* Consent orientation resource in 2023-2024 academic year. Some 8,338 of these students completed a survey on their experience with 80% agreeing that they learned something useful, while 91% would recommend it to a friend.  

 Other student feedback during the year revealed: 

• 94% of students who took part in a 1-hour in-person consent workshop said they learned something useful, and 90% would recommend it to their peers.  
• 87% of the students who completed Active* Consent’s 40-minute eLearning resource agreed that it would help them to intervene in problematic situations involving their peers, while 90% said that it would help them to support their peers if they have a negative sexual experience.

 Supporting student leadership: A new Active* Champions peer education training was piloted over the past year.  

 Gemma MacNally, Clinical and Therapeutic Lead with the Active* Consent programme, said: “In the past year, Active* Champions have delivered consent workshops, created art projects, hosted information stalls, and advised on university policy changes. By supporting peer education, Higher Education institutions inspire student leaders to lead out on culture change, and expand their own capacity to engage the whole campus community.”  

 Preparing staff: Active* Consent has made significant strides in providing staff training, with more than 2,000 staff members taking part in awareness raising and training in consent education in the Further Education and Training sector. 

 Active* Consent Research 

All Active* Consent educational resources incorporate research evidence. As an example of this research, we are sharing the results of an exploratory online survey in which 366 university students reacted to short stories featuring sexist harassment, sexual hostility, online harassment, sexual coercion and sexual consent. 

 The purpose of this survey was to gather views on these issues as part of the development of new educational resources on sexual violence and harassment. 

 Survey demographics: 86% were undergraduate students; 72% were female, 23% male, and 5% did not identify with either gender.  

 Survey findings: Students rated their agreement with the statements following each story.  

Students displayed a high level of recognition of sexual violence and online harassment in responses to the stories: 

• 92% considered it online harassment to make disparaging sexual comments on an ex-partner online. 
• 90% agreed that it was sexual coercion if sexual intimacy took place after one person persistently asked for it when the other person did not want to do it.

 Student responses to stories on harassment were less consistent. Three quarters of students considered the behaviours described to be wrong, but fewer students agreed that they constituted harassment: 

• 57% of students considered it sexist harassment for someone to show a video mocking women to a group of peers.
• 47% agreed that it was sexual harassment for one student to make sexual remarks during work meetings to complete a college assignment.
• Finally, in a story about consent, 42% of the students agreed there was sexual consent in a story about a ‘hook up’ that did not include verbal consent to sex.

 On a positive note, students who took part in educational programming – such as engaging in consent workshops and being told about supports, services and definitions – displayed better awareness of services, that alcohol impacts the ability to consent, and a greater intention to intervene if they saw sexual violence and harassment.  

 Commenting on the students’ responses about what they would do in response to the stories, Clarissa DiSantis, newly appointed Education and Training Co-Lead with the Active* Consent programme, said: “It’s encouraging that 71% of students taking the survey agreed they would intervene if they witnessed harassment, while 76% would be comfortable talking to a peer who makes a disclosure about sexual violence. We must make sure that they have the skills to follow through on their intentions.” 

 Ends