March 28, 2024
Go8 members are Australia's leading research-intensive universities with all eight ranked in the world's top 100 universities. We are also home to the 430,000 students and 52,000 staff that comprise our respective university communities. The Go8 members are committed to providing a safe university environment for all our staff and students. A particular focus in this mission is on sexual assault and sexual harassment (SASH) - both in terms of responding with a victim-centred approach to incidents of SASH, but also in preventative actions and education.
All Go8 universities have strong policies and procedures in place for preventing and responding to sexual harm, and some are world leaders in the development of primary prevention initiatives. We are committed in our work to continue to improve our approaches and impact.
The Go8 seeks to support victim-survivors, respond justly and empathetically to all disclosures and reports, and implement evidence-based prevention programming for staff and students.
The Go8 strongly supports the focus on primary prevention in eliminating gender-based violence.
The Go8 principles on SASH:
- The Go8 supports the harmonisation of consent laws and of affirmative consent.
- The Go8 supports introducing compulsory consent education for all students and staff.
- The Go8 supports compulsory consent education that is embedded in wider primary prevention activity that is appropriately resourced, evidence based and tailored to the student populations our members are serving.
- The Go8 supports partnering with student associations in co-designed and co-delivered primary prevention activities.
- The Go8 has established a SASH (Sexual Assault and Sexual Harassment) Working Group and holds regular forums to share best practice.
- The Go8 draws on world leading expertise to offer best practice guidance to all aspects of work in this area.
- The Go8 supports the development of a national education framework on sexual consent that operates across all secondary and tertiary education settings.
All Go8 members are already actioning these principles through a range of collaborative training and reporting initiatives specific to each university and its student cohort.
