Lady Gaga’s right – sexual assault is too common at universities. But help is at hand

If you have ever been subjected to sexual assault, there is no ‘correct’ way to get help, but here are the options available to you

Over the next few weeks, many young people will be packing up for university for the first time. The train tickets are bought, the freshers’ Facebook groups have been joined. This can be a nerve-racking experience at the best of times and I vividly remember my own concerns when I set off to university for the first time: “Will I make any friends? Am I clever enough to be here? Is two towels enough?”

A question I never thought to ask was: how will I get help if I am sexually assaulted? But as Lady Gaga reminds us in the closing credits of her latest video, for the song, Til It Happens to You, in the US, “One in five college women will be sexually assaulted this year unless something changes.” As the lyrics to the song make clear, the enormity of this problem probably won’t seem real “til it happens to you”, but the figures in the UK are similarly stark. A 2010 report by the National Union of Students, Hidden Marks, found one in seven women students had experienced serious sexual or physical violence and 68% had been sexually harassed; a 2014 survey by the Cambridge University student union found almost a third of its students had been sexually assaulted.

Sexual assault is not something that anybody should have to go through alone, and there is no shame in seeking help

Too often, statistics on sexual assault obscure the real people behind them, who need support. Since setting up the #NotGuilty campaign earlier this year, to give a voice to survivors of sexual violence following my own experience during my university years, I have become increasingly aware of how common an issue this is, and can say, with some experience, that we cannot afford to wait until it happens to us, or somebody we know, to educate ourselves about the available support services.