On the 7th of October 2019, BBC Africa showed a 13-minute documentary on sexual harassment by two university lecturers in Nigeria and Ghana. This was a report of an undercover investigation into how female students are sexually abused by lecturers. The situation has since not changed after that with increase in the reports of incidences of sexual violence on campuses (API, 2019 report). With this report, it is imperative to investigate the current situation in a bid to develop new strategies. While some universities are taking bold steps to establish units in their universities to prevent incidences of sexual  violence and encourage students to report cases, others are yet to come to terms with the need to create safe spaces for staff and students on the university campuses. Aside from this, the unequal power relations between female and male academics in the system make such issues to be easily swept under the carpet. With this project, we open up opportunities for all academia to respond, discuss and even bring such issues into public debate so that we can map and identify the problems and find potential solutions to cases relating to sexual violence.

Gender based violence such as sexual violence is a strong indication of societal justice issues in a given society. With this project, we aim to map, measure and solve (in the long run) problems with sexual violence on university campuses in Nigeria. Sexual violence is an integral part of gender-based violence and occurs in higher education institutions regardless of the statuses of the women involved. The success of the project hopes to contribute to impact women by empowering them so that they can be independent individually and end the culture of silence. Violence against women on campuses limits access of women to education (they may fall behind their classes due to psychological reactions to trauma, or it may deter them from coming to campus and attend classes altogether). Education is an important vehicle for social mobility, particularly for vulnerable groups and low-income populations. Preventing violence against women/sexual violence on campuses, therefore, eventually contributes to equal access in education for women.

The purpose of the project is firstly to understand the current situation on university campuses in Nigeria with respect to sexual violence. To do this, we used perspectives of university students and staff of all genders. Using this understanding, we were able to create a mentoring and training programme that hopes to help empower women and educate the wider community to challenge sexual violence and understand how to provide appropriate support to women on university campuses. This in turn, should allow women who are experiencing violence know how to access support. The learnings, mentoring and training programme and case studies are shared on this website. We encourage universities to use the materials to develop mentoring programmes of their own.

1. Identify the extent to which the universities have followed up on the Violence Against Persons Prohibition Act (VAPP), and whether this has impacted on state universities compared to the federal universities.
2. Understand the experiences, regarding safety and inclusion, of students and staff on the campuses of universities in Nigeria through a survey and focus groups (short term).
3. Use the learnings from objective 1 and 2 to create a mentoring and training scheme for students and staff that aim to address sexual violence on university campuses in Nigeria (medium term).
4. Assess the effectiveness of the mentoring and training scheme created in objective 3 (medium term).
5. Share the findings and resources created during the project with policy makers and universities across Nigeria and in the UK (long term).

1. Explore and understand the experiences of students and staff on University campuses via a survey & focus groups.
2. Written report/publication on sexual violence on university campuses in Nigeria based on the findings from the survey and focus groups with students and staff (short term).
3. A mentoring and training programme for students and staff on university campuses that aim to address sexual violence on campuses (medium term).
4. A written report/publication on the effectiveness/impact of the mentoring and training programme for students and staff (medium term).
5. The website will be launched by a virtual conference across Nigeria and the UK.

The project is participatory in design, with outcomes driven by an understanding of the lived experience of students, staff, and university leaders. A further success measure is the creation of this website that can be accessed by all universities in Nigeria and the UK. The learnings and outputs from this project can be shared widely in and between countries.

Behaviors such as misogyny and sexual violence are strong indicators of societal justice issues in each society. Sexual violence is an integral part of gender-based violence that tends to disproportionally impact on women from low socioeconomic groups. Understanding the impact of these behaviors on university campuses, and the effect they have on feelings of safety and inclusion led to the development of a mentoring and training programme for all students and staff. Hence, this project addresses some of the barriers to higher education that women (particularly those from lower socioeconomic backgrounds) face. Education is an important vehicle for social mobility particularly among vulnerable groups and low-income populations. Creating safer and more inclusive university campuses will therefore, in the long term, support equal access to education for women and other under-represented groups. The longer-term aim of the project is to create a supportive network of universities in Nigeria and the UK in which members commit to challenging violence against women and creating safe and inclusive campuses. The work conducted within the project, specifically the mentoring programme, is shared widely and can have maximum impact on women and their access to education on the national scale over the next 2-5 years.

1. Gender equality
2. Social inclusion
3. Quality Education
4. Reduce inequalities
5. Partnerships for the goals

The potential harm is minimal. Educational materials have been designed with online/virtual delivery in mind in order to reduce environmental impact moving forward. The national network is a virtual network in order to minimize carbon footprint.

Our study design specifically places women as key stakeholders and beneficiaries. The interviews and focus groups used in the project were designed collaboratively with input from the female academic team members in Nigeria and the UK, with input from our associate partners and review by recipients to ensure that they are fit for purpose and specifically reflect the needs and perspectives of women. We acknowledge that it may also be beneficial to include men, both male students and male university stakeholders, to get an idea of how women’s roles and safety in higher education are constructed and dealt with. Including men has another advantage in providing the perspective of those who may have witnessed misogyny, sexual violence, or other discriminatory behaviors. Given the sensitive issue, survivors often do not want to disclose their experiences, even when given the opportunity to do so anonymously. It can be much easier for witnesses to speak about experiences of others. Such a design usually yields more representative findings than just asking about personal experiences. If done like that, men can be important witnesses and sources of information as well.