{"id":56305,"date":"2021-03-08T00:00:28","date_gmt":"2021-03-08T08:00:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/world.edu\/?p=56305"},"modified":"2021-03-07T11:15:17","modified_gmt":"2021-03-07T19:15:17","slug":"half-of-our-unis-dont-have-bullying-policies-for-students-this-is-what-they-need-to-protect-them","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/world.edu\/half-of-our-unis-dont-have-bullying-policies-for-students-this-is-what-they-need-to-protect-them\/","title":{"rendered":"Half of our unis don\u2019t have bullying policies for students. This is what they need to protect them"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Students are heading off to universities around Australia, whether for the first time or as returning students, with expectations of a year of learning, making friends and enjoyable socialising. For some students this will not be the case. Bullying by other students continues to be a serious but neglected problem at Australian universities.<\/p>\n

Our\u00a0recent study<\/a>\u00a0of 39 Australian universities found 20 did not have an anti-bullying policy relating to students. The other 19 had a mix of student-specific policies and staff policies with students added on.<\/p>\n

Internationally, researchers have\u00a0identified bullying at universities<\/a>\u00a0as a problem. Students have reported both\u00a0traditional bullying and cyberbullying<\/a>.<\/p>\n

With growing numbers learning online, it is more important than ever to ensure universities are properly protecting their students. Students need accurate, relevant and usable information to counter bullying.<\/p>\n

First, a little context<\/strong><\/h4>\n

Despite the evidence of the harm bullying in universities does, it\u00a0hasn\u2019t received the same attention<\/a>\u00a0as bullying in schools or workplaces.<\/p>\n

Australia has laws to ensure workplaces and schools have anti-bullying policies for employees and students. Each state\u2019s\u00a0department of education<\/a>\u00a0provides a template and guidelines on what must be included in school policy and how it should be communicated to staff, students and parents.<\/p>\n

Policies are a great prevention and intervention strategy as part of efforts to stop student bullying. The problem is this government-based approach to bullying has not included tertiary education.<\/p>\n

So what are universities doing?<\/h4>\n

The support provided for students who are bullied varies from university to university. But, overall, policy-based support is lacking.<\/p>\n

The numbers found in our recent study are worrying. Only 66% of university policies defined bullying and 69% mentioned cyberbullying. Only 23% provided contact details for students to report the bullying to their university.<\/p>\n

The study assessed universities\u2019 policies for quality and usability of content. This revealed an important problem in addition to the overall lack of information. Where these policies exist, they lack accurate and usable information.<\/p>\n

How useful are these policies?<\/strong><\/h4>\n

We checked the information provided against a list of 37 items, including:<\/p>\n