A survey conducted by the University of Agder showed that nearly 3,000 students in higher education have been sexually assaulted or harassed by employees at their educational establishments.
The survey, conducted among students at three universities and two colleges, accounts for around 1% who report that they have been subjected to sexual harrassment by employees at their places of education. This corresponds to almost 3,000 students nationwide, according to NRK news.
In addition, 8% of respondents answered that they had experienced unwanted sexual advances from fellow students.
‘These figures are completely unacceptable,’ said rector, Frank Reichert, at the University of Agder.
He has taken up the results with the University and College Council, which now calls for a national action plan to prevent such incidents.
Difficult
Klassekampen newspaper wrote on Friday about a survey at the University of Oslo (UiO), which revealed that female employees had left the Faculty of Law because of sexual harassment.
Dean, Dag Michalsen, told the newspaper that the management didn’t map the extent of sexual harassment. He thought it was difficult to make surveys so far back in time, and that the survey, which wasn’t published, didn’t provide any information about when the events had happened.
Workgroup
However, to the online newspaper Khrono, who first mentioned the survey, UiO Rector, Svein Stølen, said that they would nevertheless try to map out the extent of such sexual harassment.
‘I just have to admit that the stories that are now emerging, and not least the extent of sexual harassment, shake me, and I understand that there must also be big numbers in our own case,’ he said.
He has decided that a working group should be set up to work on concrete measures to prevent harassment, but also to try to map the scope.
© NTB Scanpix / Norway Today
