Taking stock of university policies on gender-based violence: pitfalls and opportunities in shifting regulatory contexts

Within shifting regulatory contexts, higher education policies on gender-based violence (GBV) provide crucial insight into constructions of the ‘problem’ of GBV, and imagined ‘solutions’ to addressing GBV in university communities. Based on the first-ever comprehensive analysis of 129 UK university policies on GBV, we explore how GBV is addressed. We analyse the nature and place of preventative action and culture shifts, and the values and practices that underpin institutional complaints/support processes. As mandatory harassment and sexual misconduct training is soon to be embedded within English universities, our findings unpack the nature and ideological underpinnings of existing training that is written into policies, questioning simplistic assessments of good practice based on the mere existence (or not) of such measures. Similarly, we examine GBV policies to unravel the ways in which they reflect (or not) victim-centred approaches that can prevent secondary victimisation and empower victim/survivors. Overall, our analysis indicates that despite some evidence of good practice, there is a dominant absence of symbolic and material commitments to prevention, culture shifts and gender-informed victim-centric practices, and that the sector therefore has a long way to go. We also analyse the implications of these constructions of policy responses to GBV, exploring the pitfalls and opportunities within existing policies and suggesting ways forward for policy development. In doing so, we extend academic debates on the conceptualisation of the problem of GBV, and responses, in HE, as well as expanding understandings of the practical, material applications of policy constructions.