Gender-based violence in higher education and research performing organisations: three steps in critique and reconceptualisation

The critique and conceptualisation of current policy and research on gender-based violence in higher education institutions (HEIs) and research performing organisations (RPOs) are matters of central importance. Building critically on recent European research and policy experience, and conceptual reflections arising from a large European multi-country research and innovation project, three key steps in critique and reconceptualising of gender-based violence in HEIs and RPOs are explicated. These are: first, clarification of differential definitions of and inclusions in gender-based violence in HEIs and RPOs; second, drawing on the recent European UniSAFE project survey and analysis of 42,000 university staff and student respondents in 46 institutions within 15 countries, differential contextualisations of prevalence and consequences, especially the need for multi-level and intersectional analysis of prevalence and consequences; and, third, engagement with ongoing theoretical and practical contestations in conceptualisation. The article concludes with discussion of further key issues for research and policy. These include how gender and gender-based violence are understood across national, organisational contexts, and the need for more focus on perpetrators, and the organisational relations between perpetrators and victims. In working towards violence-free and safe HEIs and RPOs, the connections between violence and organisational structures, processes and dynamics must be confronted proactively.