Do students need classes on sexual consent?

"I'm 16 and I only learned the true meaning of sexual consent this year," says sixth-form student Abigail Beamish. "The obvious 'no' is often ignored in sexual relationships, but consent is more complex than that.

"When a girl says she doesn't want to have sex, it is rape. When a girl is too drunk to consent, it is rape. But when a girl isn't enjoying herself or expressing desire, is that rape?"

Tension surrounding sexual violence, misogyny and consent has grown on campuses in the UK and in the US over the past year.

A recent survey of over 2,100 students in Cambridge found that almost half had been "groped, pinched or grabbed" during their time at university and that over 100 had experienced "attempted serious sexual assault".

A similar survey of 700 students at the University of York, found that almost a third have experienced sexual harassment. In America, the White House has said that one in five female students is assaulted.

"Virtually every woman I know has experienced some sort of non-consensual contact," says Elli Wilson, a 19-year-old student and member of the sex education group Sexpression, which works with young people and students. "From being groped in a club or on public transport, to being raped by a boyfriend."

The swelling reports of sexual violence and misogyny on campuses has led Cambridge University to consider making sexual consent classes compulsory for both male and female students.

The hour-long workshops, created by Cambridge University's women's officer Lauren Steele, would involve discussion of what consent means and attempt to dispel common myths.

These include: once a man is sexually aroused, he cannot help himself and has to have sex; rapists are men hiding in the bushes or in dark alleys; women often falsely accuse men of sexual assault or rape; and agreeing to do one thing sexual means that you have agreed to do everything else as well.

"The rape culture we're surrounded by is telling people that there are blurred lines and that boundaries aren't certain," says Steele.

"Having a workshop on consent that's not a preachy campaign and that gets people involved in discussion is a positive way to tackle the problem."

The workshop explains that rape culture is "an environment in which rape is prevalent and in which sexual violence against women is normalised".

Examples on campus are not hard to find: from the story of a girl followed into the toilets by a man who undid his trousers though she repeatedly said no, to the female student punched in the face seven times for telling a man in a club not to sexually assault her.

In an attempt to combat this culture, some students have created their own version of consent workshops. In America, Jonathan Kalin, a recent graduate of Colby College, set up a programme he called "party with consent".

He says a friend's sexual assault was the motivation behind the scheme, which works with groups of male and female students to encourage healthy thinking around sex.

"Students struggle with coercion versus consent," Kalin says. "Our programme poses questions like: 'if I asked you to have sex 20 times, and on the 21st time you agreed to stop me annoying you, is that consent?"

A similar programme set up by students and graduates in the UK, called the Good Lad Workshop, deals with the prevalence of "lad culture" through workshops which encourage "positive masculinity".

Dave Llewellyn, who runs the programme, argues that the approach works because it talks directly to men and offers them a way to be part of the solution, rather than labelling them as a problem.

"If someone comes up to me and tells me that I'm a potential rapist, I don't identify with that," Llewellyn says. "And I don't necessarily want to engage with them. I think naturally, when you're told that you're the problem, you back away."

A common criticism of consent workshops run by universities, as well as by independent groups, is that they are offered too late, and that instead the school curriculum needs to be changed to bring in better relationship education.

"We can talk about consent classes when people get to uni, but that's too late - we need to talk about it a lot earlier," says Charlotte Hayden, who is about to start her final year of medicine at Leicester University.

But those in favour of consent workshops at university, argue that it doesn't have to be one or the other. "It should definitely be at school, but it's not," says Steele.

"When people first come to uni there's a lot of pressure to get drunk and to fit in and I think to have workshops at that time is a good thing."

But should they be made compulsory?

"I definitely think it's good to make them compulsory," says a first-year history student at Cambridge University. "It puts everyone in the same boat. If you make it so that people can choose, the people who go will be the people who are already aware of consent as a concept."

However, workshops alone will not solve the problem, argues a recent graduate from Oxford University.

"Consent classes are a good step, but it needs to be broader than that. On campus there's not just a problem with consent, but with attitudes towards women, and that needs to be tackled."

What students say

Lucas Fothergill, a first-year student at Newcastle University

"When I first heard that universities are seriously discussing introducing compulsory sexual consent classes I was shocked. Are things really that bad? Are mandatory classes really the cure? If they are, employing them at university level is a mistake. If classes really are necessary, they should be implemented in school, before sixth form."

Joe Deeks, a final-year student at Swansea University

"If you don't understand that if a girl says no to sex, it means no, then you're not intelligent enough to be at university. It's such a basic thing. Consent classes for men are not the solution. It could be worn as a sort of badge for people who are into banter culture. I think empowering women is the way forward. It should become embarrassing if a man is known to have slept with a girl when she's too drunk and she hasn't given consent."

Yasmine Summers, a first-year law student at the University of East Anglia.

"At university, if students are out drinking heavily there may be difficulties distinguishing what constitutes consent. As a law student I've read a case where two people went out together and drank lots of alcohol before having sex. She was so drunk that she passed in and out of consciousness. I think it needs to be established that consent is not ongoing. Once it has been given it doesn't mean it can't be revoked, whether verbally or through passing out."

Anonymous female college student from Essex

"When I go to university I don't want to experience anything worse than I already have done. I've had boys make sexist comments to me in the past and I want to be safe when I am in a place of education. Understanding of sexual consent is an important thing and I'd feel better if these classes could be offered at universities. Making boys aware of how they treat girls and that 'no means no' could help reduce sexual assaults and sexism."

Anonymous female first-year history student at Cambridge University

"It's definitely not too late for these classes when you get to university. Lots of people consider uni to be a fresh start and you can quickly get sucked into lad culture. I think it's important that universities let students know where they stand on the issue. I wish people wouldn't see it as an attack on men in general. I think people should realise its a problem that affects men and women and not make it into a gendered debate."

• Do you think that sexual consent classes should be made compulsory at university? What about at school?

(Source: TheGuardian)