Ethics
This study has received full ethical clearance from the University of Westminster ethical review board and is conducted according to the University of Westminsters Code of Practice Governing the Ethical Conduct of Research. Our research practice is informed by the Survivors' Charter for the involvement of people with lived experience of abuse, and the ten principles of ethical interviewing of survivors. It has been fully risk assessed to ensure the wellbeing and safety of everyone that participates in the study as far as possible.
Consent and safeguarding
We understand consent as an ongoing process so participants will be asked for their consent at different stages of the research project; they can change their mind at any point and they do not have to give a reason.
Participants will be asked to read and sign a separate consent form (English PDF download link below). The consent form describes how everything participants share with us will remain confidential and their identity will be kept anonymous. For group discussions, participants' identities will be known by the other people in the group only. We understand sexual and gender based violence in universities as a structural issue prevalent across institutions globally. Hence, no individual institutions will be named at any point during our research.
There are a limited set of circumstances in which we may have to break confidentiality. These are connected to issues of extreme risk and safeguarding. We will discuss these with participants before the interview and answer any questions they have before we proceed.
You can download the full consent form below, or follow this link to access the online version.
What will happen to the data?
Everything participants tell us during the interviews or group discussions will be transcribed (written down) in an anonymised format by a professional transcriber, so that the researchers can carry out analysis. Transcribers are bound by a non-disclosure agreement. If participants provide any personally identifiable information, it will be treated confidentially and following the University of Westminster's ethical guidelines.
After the study has finished, participants can withdraw their data up until the analysis starts (we will provide a specific date) and they do not need to explain why. All data will be securely stored and managed following the General Data Protection Act 2018.
Participants' anonymised data may be used for future research and could be analysed a second time. You can find further information on the participant information sheet, which can be downloaded below: