Consent

Getting consent means actively gaining someone's permission to do something before doing it. 

Sexual consent means a person willingly agrees to engage in sexual activity. You should respect other people's bodies and personal boundaries. So always make sure your partner is participating freely and readily. If you are going to be sexually active while at university, it is important that you understand consent.

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Consent must be...

Given freely and enthusiastically
You should not pressure, force, manipulate or coerce anybody into to doing anything they do not want to do.

A conscious decision 
A person cannot consent if they are asleep, passed out or under the influence of alcohol or drugs. If you are unsure about whether someone is able to give consent you should not engage in sexual activity with that person.

Continuous 
They can change their minds at any time. Consenting to one type of sexual activity is not consenting to all sexual activity.

Consent matters module

This module on sexual consent is mandatory for all students - you will need to log in to the VLE to complete it.

Watch https://youtu.be/hBxUryV_9Qg on YouTube

Look out for one another

Watch https://youtu.be/u7Nii5w2FaI on YouTube

If you feel that someone is at risk, help them get home safely. If you feel that someone is behaving in a problematic way, intervene. You could:

  • escalate by telling someone with authority;
  • distract the potential perpetrator from the situation;
  • remove the potential victim from the situation.

Further help

Any sexual contact or behaviour that occurs without explicit agreement or consent may be considered sexual violence. If you or someone you know has experienced sexual harassment, assault or violence there is help available. Visit the sexual violence page for more information or to report an incident.

Sexual violence

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