70 pc of Irish female students sexually harassed by end of college

The vast majority of men and a significant proportion of male students experience sexual harassment during their time in college in Ireland.

A new survey shows that 70 per cent of female third-year students said they'd been subject to sexual hostility or crude gender harassment since starting college. That figure was 54 per cent for women in first year and 64 per cent for women in second year. Twenty-five per cent of male first years, 37 per cent of male second years and 40 per cent of male third years reported that they'd been harassed in college. The survey also found that 40 per cent of students see consensual drunk sex as a normal part of university life. The research was carried out among 2,150 students by the NUI Galway SMART Consent team. The majority of those surveyed also said the sex education they got at school was inadequate. Seventy-one per cent of women and 63 per cent of men said they were dissatisfied with what they were taught in secondary school when it came to sex. These figures are included in a report called 'Are Consent Workshops Sustainable and Feasible in Third Level Institutions?'. Minister for State for Third Level Education Mary Mitchell O'Connor has called the findings "troubling."