In September of this year, a student from Cornell University, using the name “Jane Doe” in court documents, filed a lawsuit against seven men. At the time they were members of the Chi Phi fraternity who raped her when she was heavily under the influence. Cornell University have denied claims that the men were inappropriately punished, with Doe claiming the majority were asked to write essays as a form of apology and were then allowed to continue their studies.
After the case of the “Cornell 7” was publicly exposed, investigations have been carried out across universities around the world. These aim to explore the process of reporting cases of sexual misconduct within university circles and examine the wider process from making a disclosure to the punishment of the offender. The University of Sheffield was one of the universities looked into in this regard.
The University of Sheffield defines Sexual Misconduct as “any incident of unwanted sexual behaviour. It includes, but isn’t limited to, rape, sexual assault, image based sexual abuse and sexual harassment.”
In October this year, the University of Sheffield responded to a Freedom of Information Request from Christina Scote, a recent graduate of Oxford University, stating the amount of both informal and formal sexual misconduct disclosures that have been registered in recent years.
The University reports that during the 2025/2026 academic year, 182 formal disclosures of sexual misconduct were made, compared to 92 in 2024/2025, with the highest amount of disclosures being 216 in 2022/2023.
The University specifies that: “Disclosures are often made by the victim themselves, but can also be submitted by a third party (student, staff member, or a member of the public) on their behalf. In some instances, victims may not be aware a disclosure has been made, or may be aware but do not wish to access support or take forward any report. Disclosures can also be submitted anonymously, which limits any action that can be taken or support offered.”
However, “The University distinguishes between a disclosure (when an incident is shared with the University) and a report (when a student decides they want their disclosure to be formalized as a report of misconduct and investigated by the University under the Student Discipline Regulations). Many disclosures of inappropriate behaviour do not proceed to disciplinary action for a range of reasons (e.g., the reporting party does not want to request an investigation or has reported to the police instead, the disclosure is dealt with via another procedure, the reported party is not a UoS student or withdraws during discipline procedures, or no ID is available for the reported party).”
A Forge Press survey circulated around University of Sheffield students found that 41% of respondents have experienced sexual misconduct during their time at university, with only 24% of those students disclosing this information to the university.
These statistics suggest that there may be barriers to making a formal disclosure or report against the perpetrator in each case. Forge Press spoke to students who have experienced sexual misconduct to get some more insight on what these barriers may be.
The Sheffield Feminist Society’s Anti-Rape Culture Workshop Officer, Ella, told us:
“With regard to Universities, whilst they may have or advertise support services or ways to report what has happened to them, these may be impacted by the stigma and rape myths – for example, the Warwick University rape chat scandal back in 2019 initially showed similar attitudes in the way the University responded to what we’re seeing with Cornell – they initially banned 2 of the men involved for 10 years, but on appeal changed this to only 12 months (was not until they faced an immense amount of backlash that they actually made sure they did not come back to the university).
Not to mention that sexual misconduct can be a hard thing to prove – and this may be why people are apprehensive about reporting. This could also stem from wider distrust of authority figures.”
One student mentioned a practical barrier was that the “Report and Support” form used to report their case required “a response with a limit of 6000 characters. This meant I had to omit a lot of detail about what really happened.”
This student also said: “Unfortunately one of the major issues after experiencing it is denial/ downplaying it to try and get over it and that means it often gets normalised at uni because people don’t get the direct support they need. I just really want people to know that if it does happen to them it doesn’t have to be the end and they can regain control even when it feels like you can’t. Often there is self blame for it because you consent to one thing but that doesn’t mean the rest is okay.”
From our survey, students claimed that the main barriers to reporting are “the fear of not being believed”, “the lengthy process that may bring up unwanted trauma” and “the lack of obvious support networks” and “peer response”.
The University of Sheffield has a detailed site regarding how to make a disclosure against sexual misconduct, however it is not obvious to find from the website’s homepage or the student hub.
A postgraduate student told us a major barrier to reporting may be “the knowledge of the Report and Support framework”. This student was not aware of the pathway during their undergraduate degree. Report and Support operates as the first point of action for reporting sexual misconduct and starting the process of reporting the incident whilst providing the victim with the support they need.
A University of Sheffield student disclosed their overall positive experience with the support systems in place.
“However, the information the [Sexual Abuse Support Officer] SVSO gave me after the meeting was helpful. She had messaged a point of contact from my department to make them aware so I have been having meetings so that there is understanding about my attendance/ circumstances. I had been advised about taking a leave of absence which I was keen to avoid. I was informed about how there is a sexual violence counselling pathway at the university counselling service. I was made aware about a platform called Togetherall to access anonymous mental health support. We also spoke about [Belief, No Belief and Religious Life Centre] BNBR being an option to speak to someone. They asked if I wanted security to be given permission to access updates from the police which they did when I hadn’t heard back from the police for a while.”
This student found this element of support beneficial, however remains aware that many students with similar experiences are not aware of this information.
A spokesperson from the university’s media team commented: “The University encourages any student who has experienced or witnessed harassment, sexual misconduct or other inappropriate behaviour to share their concerns, so we can ensure they receive the right support and understand the options available to them.
“We understand that deciding whether to come forward can be difficult so we have made our process as flexible as possible. Making a disclosure does not mean a student has to make a formal report. A disclosure becomes a report if the student asks for it to be passed to the teams who manage student resolutions or, if it relates to a member of staff, to Human Resources. Their decision on whether to report will be respected, and they can change their mind at any point.”
