What is happening to top universities?

It’s all about money and what sells to potential students.

As long as the university is lining their pockets with those sweet, sweet tuition dollars, they don’t care what they have to do to get it.

1. Oxford University is one of the top universities in the world, they don’t need any gimmicks to increase incoming student £££. In 2015 there were 3,200 undergraduate spots available, and over 18,000 applications were received.

2. The workshops are not mandatory.

3. “It’s a strange thing that individuals exist who genuinely believe consent workshops to be “patronising” and reduce consent classes into “lessons on how to say yes or no”. The reality is far from this. Instead, consent sessions work to debunk myths surrounding rape, deconstruct the impact of hyper-masculinity on all genders, and push students not to shame peers for their sexual preferences or sexual activity.

It doesn’t take much research to realise that the quality Sex and Relationship Education in the UK is seriously lacking. Consent and mutual respect is rarely addressed in schools, the unrealistic depiction of sex in pornography is barely touched upon, and in many cases, LGBTQ+ issues are never discussed. More than four in five young people (85 per cent), for example, are never even taught about same-sex relationships.

Consequently, students’ unions are frequently brought into bridge this gap  – often, under the heading of “consent workshops”. Universities and students’ union have a duty of care towards their students, do they not? Thus, it only makes sense for them to run workshops that will educate their students about matters of consent and the support services available to them – especially when most students lack basic understanding of university protocol in instances of rape and sexual violence.”

4. Seriously, sex ed is schools is appallingly poor.

5. Discussion of rape culture and consent isn’t about the unknown attacker in a dark alleyway, which I assume is the equivalent to the “Don’t Point Guns At People And Rob Them” example above. It’s about all those many surveys that show large numbers of teens and adults thinking that flirting is consent to sex, that being drunk is consent to sex, that clothing styles are consent to sex, that consent to sex once is blanket consent to sex any time in the future, that being male is consent to sex, that a “yes” obtained through threats, aggression or manipulation is genuine consent to sex, and so on and so on and so on.

6. On the other hand, mandatory Don’t Point Guns At People And Rob Them classes would be immensely fucking patronising to Oxford uni students because Oxford is in the UK, where pretty much the only civilians with guns are gamekeepers, sport shooters, antiques collectors, and criminals with bigger plans than simple mugging.

Not to mention that Oxford (as well as every school in the UK) has a tuition cap. There’s no “selling” to students because that’s not how it works in Europe.

Studies do show that sexual assault IS an epidemic in college campuses and most colleges do all they can to cover up rapes that happen or not take responsibility. But apparently the moment one top university starts taking action to combat the issue and take responsibility, people are acting as if that college is “selling out.”

The numerous colleges that actively cover up campus rapes and let off rapists scott free are the sell outs, but none of you edge lords have anything to say about that.