By Carlos Alba

Universities and colleges are failing to meet even basic standards of safeguarding, five years after the death of Aberdeen University student Emily Drouet, who took her own life in her halls of residence following a campaign of physical and emotional abuse by her boyfriend, according to her mother.

Fiona Drouet said that, while some progress has been made, most higher and further education institutions in Scotland still do not have measures in place that would have prevented her daughter’s death.

Her charity, Emily Test, will this week launch the world’s first gender-based violence (GBV) charter for universities and colleges in Scotland.

The Scottish Government-backed award will be given to institutions that can demonstrate they have effective and robust systems in place to identify and help students suffering physical, sexual, and emotional abuse.

The two-tier charter was developed following a year-long research project which took evidence from around 135 student victims of gender-based violence (GBV) and a similar number of university and college staff and GBV professionals, including from rape crisis and women’s aid groups.

Findings showed a lack of proper reporting and referral systems for students who had suffered abuse and an almost total absence of risk assessment processes to distinguish emergency from non-emergency cases.

Too often responsibility for handling reports of abuse was delegated to non-specialist and casual university staff, often on top of already overburdened workloads.

Mrs Drouet said: “Emily’s death was more than five years ago and our research shows that, while there is a determination to improve, most universities and colleges are still not meeting even bare bones basic standards of safety and care for students who suffer abuse.

“One of the most disturbing aspects of Emily’s case was that, despite repeatedly signalling to staff that she was struggling – and displaying visible signs of physical assault – the people she spoke to were clearly not qualified to spot her abuse and there were no effective systems in place to escalate her case.

“The charter is a flat, two-tier award that gives institutions an opportunity to demonstrate that they are meeting minimum standards in GBV prevention, intervention and support by answering the question ‘would your institution have saved Emily’s life?

“The second tier asks them to go beyond ‘pass’ level and answer the question ‘how would your institution have helped Emily to thrive?’" and asks institutions to submit examples of innovation and best practice for our excellence standards, where they will receive an excellence upgrade on their badge.

“If institutions do not feel they can take the ‘Emily Test’ yet because they have not built up enough of an infrastructure of GBV prevention, intervention and support, they can pledge to take the Emily Test and will be assessed within an agreed period of time.”

Universities and colleges that achieve charter and excellence status – assessed by a blind panel of experts from higher and further education, GBV organisations, student bodies, campaigners, and academics – will be able to display a ‘passed the Emily test’ badge on their website and marketing materials.

In developing the charter, Emily Test ran a six-month pilot programme involving St Andrews and Strathclyde Universities and Glasgow Clyde and South Lanarkshire Colleges.

Emily, a Law student at Aberdeen University, killed herself following a campaign of mental, verbal, and physical abuse by Angus Milligan, 21, a direct descendent of Andrew Carnegie.
Milligan later pleaded guilty at Aberdeen Sheriff Court to assaulting her by seizing her by the neck and choking her, pushing her against a desk and repeatedly slapping her to her injury.

He also pleaded guilty to threatening and abusing her, of using abusive and offensive language and sending offensive, indecent, obscene, and menacing texts to her.

Mrs Drouet and her husband, Germain, claimed to have discovered a catalogue of failures by the university which, they believed, contributed to their daughter’s death.

The launch of the charter will be held online on December 6 due to Covid restrictions and attended by Jamie Hepburn, the Scottish Minister for Higher and Further Education.

Universities and colleges applying for charter status will be asked to demonstrate a range of provisions including established support mechanisms for GBV reporting and support, with smooth and centralised pipelines of referral.

Training for dedicated, full-time staff should involve broadening the focus from rape and sexual assault to include less represented forms of abuse including financial and coercive control and digital violence.

Training should also include understanding of how factors like age, class, disability, geography, gender, and sexuality shape experiences of GBV and accessing help and support.

Institutions should also be able to show that they have proper risk assessment processes in place to respond to reports of GBV, that they are able to spot emergencies and to deal with them immediately and that staff are trained in how help students with mental health issues, including suicidal feelings.

Mrs Drouet said: “There needs to be clearly-defined job descriptions in relation to GBV, with no reliance on casualised staff to intervene.

“There are currently no objective standards against which institutions are measured in this area and we want to change that and to ensure that training is evaluated and endorsed by professionals with experience of tackling violence against women.

She added: “We also hope the charter will be helpful for students, their parents and guardians when considering their place of study? Focusing on academic achievement and jobs potential is, of course, important, but we need to ensure that universities and colleges are safe environments for all students.”

A spokesman for Universities Scotland said: "Today’s launch of the Charter represents a significant milestone for the Emily Test and the culmination of what we know has been a tremendous amount of development to ensure it is informed by the lived experience of survivors.

“Every university is committed to tackling gender-based violence; there’s a lot of work going on in institutions and in collaboration across the sector. The Charter is designed to meet universities where they are and encourage and support further progress. The pilot universities found their experience of the Charter to be both stretching and constructive which is helpful feedback for other institutions considering applying.

“Every institution wants to build on what works in their own strategies to tackle gender-based violence and evaluation is vital to this. If the Charter helps to build a robust evidence base of what works, this will be a powerful addition to the sector.”