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HES-SO publishes survey results and reinforces its measures to prevent gender-based harassment

Egalité & Diversité Publié le 16.01.2025. Mis à jour le 29.01.2025.

HES-SO is firmly committed to combating gender-based harassment. As part of this commitment, HES-SO commissioned a study of its entire student and staff community to measure and better understand the phenomenon. Based on the results, HES-SO will step up its actions to prevent and combat gender-based harassment at all levels to ensure a respectful academic and workplace environment for its students and staff.

Switzerland's largest university of applied sciences, with some 21,000 students, HES-SO has made preventing and combating sexual and gender-based harassment a priority. In this context, the decision was made to carry out a wide-ranging survey among its members to better understand the reality of gender-based harassment within its community and to assess the effectiveness of existing measures.

HES-SO commissioned the research institute MIS Trend to conduct a survey among all students (Bachelor, Master and continuing education) and staff, including temporary staff - a total of around 42,000 people. The questions concerned their exposure as a victim or witness to sexual and gender-based harassment ranging from degrading or sexist remarks to attempted rape and rape. The survey asked whether the respondents had experienced or witnessed these situations in the last 12 months or previously (without a time limit). The questions also allowed respondents to specify the contexts in which these situations took place, both within and outside HES-SO, and assessed the understanding and effectiveness of measures put in place to prevent and combat gender-based harassment in the schools.

The results confirm that HES-SO, in the same way as society as a whole, has not been spared by this phenomenon1:

  • Just over a quarter of the entire HES-SO community reported having been as the target of degrading and gender-based remarks in the last 12 months.
     
  • The most serious cases (touching, offering benefits in exchange for sexual favours, revenge porn, rape and attempted rape) concerned slightly less than 4% of all respondents in the last 12 months or before. Two thirds of the most serious cases, in particular cases of rape and attempted rape, took place outside of HES-SO, often in a private setting.
     
  • Female students were the most likely to be exposed to harassing behaviour, with 58% having been the target of at least one harassment situation listed in the questionnaire in the last 12 months or before. For male students and female staff, the rates were 36% and 39% respectively. With an incident rate of 27%, male staff were the least affected by gender-based harassment.
     
  • Most harassment cases happened between people of the same category, namely between students or between staff members. For example, in 68% of gender-based harassment cases against female students the perpetrator was another student.
     
  • 24% of men reported being targets of gender-based jokes or remarks in the last 12 months or previously.   

The survey results have also shown that the systems in place within its schools to prevent or combat gender-based harassment are not yet sufficiently well known. Only 29% of all respondents indicated that they were aware of these systems. This figure drops to 16% for female students. Those who accessed the support systems felt that they were taken seriously and that their case was treated with appropriate confidentiality. However, the results show that efforts still need to be made to improve the effectiveness of anti-harassment measures and of follow-up management.

1: The analyses provided by MIS Trend are anonymised and do not allow the data subjects to be identified. With a response rate of nearly 15% or almost 6,300 people and an overall margin of error of 1.1%, the results are considered reliable for the entire HES-SO community.

Actions to better prevent and combat sexual and gender-based harassment

HES-SO acknowledges the survey results confirming that its institutions, like society as a whole, are affected by this scourge. Reaffirming its stand against gender-based harassment, the institution is aware how much remains to be done to break the silence, bring situations to light and change behaviour. HES-SO is determined to continue its commitment and will work with its schools to strengthen the implementation of HES-SO’s Policy Framework for the Prevention and Management of Sexual and Gender-based Harassment. HES-SO intends to use the survey results to strengthen and better target its measures:

  • Concrete measures will focus on students, who are the main victims of these acts as the survey shows. At the start of each academic year, systematic prevention and awareness-raising actions, a reminder of the institution's zero tolerance policy towards such behaviour, as well as increased information about the systems for gathering evidence and for counselling will be carried out.
     
  • HES-SO will collaborate with the Federation of Student Associations to train its Federation members in preventing and combating sexual and gender-based harassment so that they can provide additional support to students.
     
  • For schools staff, the number of training courses on sexual and gender-based harassment in HES-SO’s professional development centre (DEVPRO) will be increased. The schools will ensure a greater participation by their staff.
     
  • HES-SO will strongly emphasise to its community the civil, criminal and academic normative framework and the available measures to address and punish cases of harassment.

Work will start immediately, and all measures will be implemented by the start of the 2025 academic year to become systematic thereafter. In order to measure the evolution of the phenomenon and the relevance of the measures taken, the study will be repeated in 2027.

Luciana Vaccaro, Rector of HES-SO : “Gender-based harassment affects us all. We need a strong and collective stand to combat this scourge. Today, HES-SO takes that stand. Based on the survey results, we will continue our commitment to prevent and combat gender-based harassment. We want to act quickly at all levels of the institution to ensure that those who study and work in our schools are treated with respect. The study shows how much remains to be done to combat this phenomenon within HES-SO but also in society at large. Our institution, which encompasses a wide range of activities and socio-professional backgrounds, is a very telling reflection of the situation in society at large. All segments of society must work together to eradicate this toxin in of human relations.”

 

HES-SO against sexual and gender-based harassment: a strong and unequivocal stand

HES-SO strongly condemns any form of sexual and gender-based harassment. It already has a zero-tolerance policy for harassment. It encourages all persons who are targets or witnesses of any acts of sexual or gender-based harassment to report such intolerable acts to the people designated within their school to collect their statements. HES-SO as a whole works to ensure that the voices of these people are heard and respected, and that they receive all the support they need.

HES-SO complies with all laws protecting the health and personal integrity of its employees, i.e. employment law, the Swiss Code of Obligations, the Swiss Criminal Code, and the Gender Equality Act. Students are protected against harassment by the Swiss Criminal Code but not by Swiss employment law. Therefore, HES-SO is particularly focused on putting in place systems that meet their specific needs.

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