Most universities in Scotland have failed to sign a charter to tackle gender-based violence in education, a charity has said.
The charter was launched last year by EmilyTest, a Scottish Government-backed charity in memory of 18-year-old Emily Drouet – started by her mother Fiona.
Emily took her own life in 2016 while she was a student at Aberdeen University following an abuse campaign by her boyfriend.
Four of Scotland’s 19 universities have signed up to the charter.
Six Scottish universities have also joined.
The charter challenges university and college policies around violence prevention and support by asking the question, “Would you have saved Emily’s life?”.
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Fiona Drouet told BBC’s Good Morning Scotland: “Emily left home for a few hours to study at a university and she was subjected to psychological, sexual and physical abuse.
“She went to the front for help and unfortunately received an inferior response, went back to her room and was attacked three more times and unfortunately the last one took his life.
“We uncovered a catalog of errors, and understanding that Emily’s death was preventable spurred this work.”
Law student Emily took her own life in March 2016. Her boyfriend Angus Milligan, 21, admitted assault and threats.
In July 2017, he was ordered to do 180 hours of unpaid work and told he would be under supervision for a year.
EmilyTest is committed to providing more support and resources to help save lives like Emily’s.
Their charter lists minimum standards that must be met by institutions, including periodic evaluation of reporting systems and any up-to-date prevention and support training for staff and students.
“It’s about an overhaul of every single system in the institution in relation to gender-based violence,” Ms Drouet said.
The Universities of St Andrews, Strathclyde, Aberdeen and Dundee have all signed up to have their procedures verified by EmilyTest.
Ms Drouet hopes that three more institutions will join her when she next hosts.
She said: “We are quite happy with how it has gone as we have only had this framework ready for the period of a year, but there is certainly much more that the institutions could do.
“We receive many promises, but actions will speak louder.”
Universities Scotland, representing the 19 higher education institutions, said: “Universities take student safety and gender-based violence on campus very seriously and every university is committed to tackling gender-based violence.
“A lot of work is going on in the institutions and in cooperation throughout the sector.”
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