Exploring Implementation of Gender-Based Violence Policies in English Higher Education

Tackling gender-based violence and harassment (GBVH) has become an increasingly urgent task for higher-education institutions (HEIs) globally. This article explores why HEIs take different approaches in the implementation of policies tackling GBVH. Through a comparative case-example approach that explores two contrasting HEIs in England, it focuses on an aspect of policy implementation that has been a particular challenge: formal report handling. One HEI in the example had implemented national legal guidance in this area; the other had not. Their work in this area was not primarily driven by the national guidance in either case; instead, a proactive response in one HEI was shaped by a “watershed case” of sexual violence. This article problematises analyses that homogenise the higher-education sector as taking a uniform approach to this issue, revealing a more complicated reality in which institutional actors are highly aware of problems with institutional processes and in which cultures around GBVH shape policy implementation.