PRESS RELEASE
Thursday, January 10, 2013
For Immediate Publication

At 2pm today, the Union of Students in Ireland (USI) launched its ‘Say Something’ online survey on students’ experiences of violence.

USI is conducting this survey with the support of Cosc – the National Office for the Prevention of Domestic, Sexual and Gender-based Violence. The purpose of this survey is to better understand the extent and nature of violence experienced by third level students.

This survey also seeks to establish how safe or unsafe students feel in different environments. Regardless of whether or not a student has experienced any kind of violence or harassment, their responses will help us to understand and deal with issues of violence as experienced by third level students.

The survey, which will take 10-15 minutes to complete, has sections which ask about experiences relating to the following: unwanted obsessive behaviour and stalking; harassment; educational support; physical mistreatment and violence; and unwanted sexual experiences.

The survey can be completed confidentially and will seek information from students of all genders and sexualities. USI would encourage all students to complete the online questionnaire as soon as possible as we anticipate being able to produce initial findings at the end of next month.

The USI, in conjunction with their member organisations throughout the country, will be promoting this survey over the coming weeks.

Link to the survey: http://survey.usi.ie/index.php?sid=76276&lang=en  (or if you’re tweeting, use http://tinyurl.com/usi2013)

Laura Harmon, USI Vice President for Equality and Citizenship said:

“We are hoping to get a good response rate from students throughout the country for this survey so that we can gain a greater insight into the prevalence of violence in relation to third level students. This is the first time that we have undertaken a study of this scale for this age group. We hope that the information we receive will be useful in ensuring that the future campaigns USI and local Students’ Unions run in this area will be well informed and targeted. The survey includes contact details for relevant support organisations so that students know where to go if they need support.”

Gary Heylin, Director of Cosc said:

“By increasing our understanding of the extent and nature of violence experienced by thir level students we can improve our actions to counter such violence and support those who have experienced it.”


-ENDS-

For more information contact USI Media and Communications Executive, Ronan Costello, on 085-1164263 or email media@usi.ie