OfS Sexual Misconduct Survey 2025

The survey seeks to understand whether university students have experienced either sexual harassment and/or sexual violence since they became a student, either within their university setting, or at other sites or events unconnected to the university. 

The University has conducted its own sector-leading research on this issue through the OUR SPACE (Oxford Understanding Relationships, Sex, Power, Abuse, and Consent Experiences) survey, that has directly informed the Office for Students’ (OfS) survey plans. 

Your survey answers to the OfS survey will help to build a national picture of the incidence of sexual misconduct experienced by students in Higher Education and help universities develop tools to tackle this serious issue. 

Why is the Sexual Misconduct Survey important? 

Whether or not you have experienced misconduct, your voice is extremely important to the OfS and your answers will help them to understand the incidence of sexual misconduct in Higher Education and help universities develop tools to tackle this serious issue.

Opting out of the sexual misconduct survey 

Once you have completed the NSS, you will be invited to opt-in to complete the sexual misconduct survey immediately afterwards.

This survey is entirely optional and you do not have to take part or answer any questions you don’t want to. 

If you would prefer not to be sent the sexual misconduct survey, you can opt-out by following the details in the OfS privacy notice, available under 'student surveys'. This notice also explains more about how and why the OfS use your data.

Your Data 

The Sexual Misconduct Survey is completely confidential and you will not be identified. This survey, like the NSS, is a task carried out by the OfS in the public interest. 

Personal data is held in accordance with the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018. All your responses will remain strictly pseudonymised and at no point will you be identified. Any personally identifiable data will be securely deleted by Ipsos after the survey closes and will not be shared with any third parties.

The data used for the sexual misconduct survey is drawn from the data collected for the NSS.

You will not be contacted about the sexual misconduct survey separately. Students cannot complete the sexual misconduct survey if they have not completed the NSS. Both surveys will be live from 20 January until 30 April 2025.

Support for students 

Students are invited to contact the University’s Sexual Harassment and Violence Support Service if you would like to arrange an appointment for confidential and independent, practical and emotional support for any matters relating to this survey. The Service is available to any student who has experienced any form of sexual harassment or violence (whenever and wherever it happened). There is a separate service for students who have been reported of sexual misconduct.

You can find out more about how the University is tackling sexual harassment and violence on the Oxford Against Sexual Violence webpage. 

Who is running the Sexual Misconduct Survey? 

This confidential survey will be conducted by Ipsos, an independent research agency. It is commissioned on behalf of the OfS, the regulator of higher education in England. The OfS protect the interests of students by working with universities and colleges to ensure a high quality learning experience where students can thrive and feel safe. View theOffice for Students’ Student guide to harassment and sexual misconduct  for more information about their work in this area.

The OfS also commission Ipsos to conduct the National Student Survey on their behalf. The University wrote to all eligible students on 11 December to tell them all about the NSS and why your voice is so important to Oxford.