CANBERRA, July 20 (Xinhua) -- Australian universities have vowed to prioritize student welfare in their response to a report which found 51 percent of students were sexually harassed in a single year.
Universities Australia on Friday released 12 guidelines to help institutions respond to sexual assault and harassment on campus.
It comes almost a year after the Australian Human Rights Commission survey revealed that 51 percent of university students reported being sexually harassed or assaulted on at least one occasion in 2016.
Alarmingly for the 39 institutions which participated in the survey only 4 percent of respondents believed their university was providing enough support for victims.
The new guidelines recommend that universities take urgent action following a report of abuse such as moving students to a different class or arranging alternative accommodation while an investigation takes place.
Catriona Jackson, chief executive of Universities Australia, said in a media release on Friday, "These guidelines complement other major initiatives developed by the university sector as a whole and the hundreds of initiatives by individual universities over the past year alone.
"Every student should feel - and be - safe, both on campus and in the wider community."
The guidelines call on all participating institutions to develop online reporting tools, provide intensive support and academic consideration for victims and train all staff who deal with students as first responders.
