New Consent Matters online course launches for students

Online course

The University has launched a new online course for all students called Consent Matters.

The course, which all students are auto-enrolled onto as part of a suite of diversity and equality training modules, has been developed to communicate key messages about sexual consent in an accessible way.

All students, regardless of previous training around sexual misconduct or sexual violence, are encouraged to complete the new Consent Matters course. Please go to your VITAL home page and open the course via Diversity and Equality for Students > Online modules > Bullying, harassment and bias.

The course is part of the University’s broader work on tackling sexual misconduct. It follows amendments to the Policy on Student Conduct and Discipline to explicitly define sexual misconduct offences; training for all Student Services staff around supporting students who have experienced sexual misconduct or sexual violence; and a new collaboration with the Liverpool Guild of Students to deliver bystander intervention training to hundreds of student leaders. The training aims to empower students to tackle sexual misconduct and harassment of any form, both on and off campus, and train students to know how to report such incidents and seek support.

Further work is also planned to highlight the University’s zero tolerance approach to sexual misconduct.

Liverpool Guild of Students will be running the celebrated Call It Out campaign again this academic year which aims to communicate the support available to students who are victims of sexual misconduct or harassment, communicate the new disciplinary procedures in place, and reinforce that within our University community sexual misconduct and harassment of any form will not be tolerated.

This year digital harassment is also being incorporated into the campaign, to take into account the increasing amount of time students spend online. To supplement this activity, a collaboration between the University and Liverpool Guild of Students is taking place to research the online culture on campus which will be used to help tackle online harassment more effectively in the future.

As part of the project, the researchers are currently looking to interview students who have been affected by online harassment.  The interviews are completely confidential and all information will be made anonymous in the research. If you would like to take part please contact Dr Fiona O’Rourke on f.o-rourke@liverpool.ac.uk.

To find out more about the University’s work on sexual misconduct, please visit our web hub on sexual assault, harassment and hate crime.

If you have experienced sexual misconduct and need support, there are a range of options available to you. You can talk to Student Services, face to face, by phone or by email – details are available here. This link also includes details of external sources of support as well as online support which you can access anonymously through Big White Wall 24 hours a day, seven days a week using your university email address.

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