Cambridge University in spotlight as rape and sexual assault reports by students rise tenfold

They encourage reporting and wonder why they get more reports.  The obvious question is how many of these complaints are reality based.  As only a tiny minority were formal, it seems highly likely that the real incidence of sexual harassment was very low.  England is notorious for false rape alegations

Rape and sexual assault reports from university students have risen tenfold with Cambridge University seeing some of the highest number of complaints in the country, an investigation has revealed.

The “black-out drinking” culture is partly to blame, victims have warned as they reveal that they have been let down by a lack of systems in place to investigate and suspend alleged attackers.

The number of allegations made to universities per year rose from 65 in 2014 to 626 in 2018, Freedom of Information requests by Channel 4 News show.

It is feared that this could be the “tip of the iceberg” as campaigners warn that universities are not equipped to with the flood of complaints and risk leaving a “generation betrayed”.

Among those who says they have been let down by the system is a Cambridge student who says that her college tipped off her alleged attacker when she grew frustrated at their response and called the police.

The Crown Prosecution service and the police actively encourage victims of sexual assault to come forward, despite the fact that prosecution rates are falling.

Allegations involving alcohol, which is often the case in reports of attacks on campus, are notoriously difficult to prove and are among the more difficult cases being dropped by prosecutors, charities have warned.

The figures show that the University of East Anglia had the highest number of reports – at 281 since 2014 – whilst Cambridge, which only  provided figures for the last three years, received 165 and the University of Birmingham recorded 87.

Each university stressed that the number of reports included historic allegations, many of which may have occurred off campus and did not reflect the number of incidents at the universities themselves.

The universities with the highest number of reports said that this was a “positive indicator” and reflected the fact they had improved awareness, reporting techniques and support for students.

Katie Russell, a spokeswoman for Rape Crisis, said that the figures mirror increases in reports to police and the charity’s crisis centres, though the number of victims who come forward remains low at around 17 per cent.

She said that many universities are taking positive steps in dealing with sexual misconduct but they need to “take responsibility and adopt zero tolerance approach to any kind of sexist or abusive behaviour”.

Dr Emma Chapman, member of the 1752 Group which campaigns against sexual misconduct in higher education, added that encouraging reports is not enough and universities are not putting the required resources into supporting alleged victims after they have made a complaint.

“I have seen nothing which has increased my faith in universities to deal with the people coming forward,” Dr Chapman said.

“I am really pleased that more people feel able to report but I hope that trust is not misplaced or we could leave a whole generation feeling betrayed - and what would that mean for the next generation watching?”

A Birmingham University student who alleges she was drugged and raped on a night out is among those who believe that free alcohol and the culture of getting “black-out drunk” in fresher’s week is contributing to the issues.

A woman who made rape allegations to Cambridge said that she was “shocked” when she was referred to numbers in the fresher’s book.

When she did call the police the college warned the accused, she claims. He was detained but the case was dropped before trial.

Cambridge, which has previously admitted that it has a “significant problem” with sexual misconduct, said that cases such as this were “exactly” why they had pushed for change. 

Senior Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Education) Professor Graham Virgo said that they have made a number of big changes since the woman made her allegations, including an anonymous reporting tool and a campaign to raise awareness.

He said: “I know from listening to students that no matter how well an investigation is handled it can be an extremely difficult experience. We are doing everything we can to make sure students feel supported.

“Sexual harassment is an issue for all universities, and for society – 1 in 4 UK women between the ages of 16 and 24 are subjected to some form of sexual violence.  It is one of the most underreported crimes as a result of stigma and victim blaming attached to it. We have to continue to address this and we will.”

Not all complaints were formal and many were recorded anonymously. Birmingham, for example, said that they had only received 14 formal reports in the last five years whilst Cambridge said that of their reports only 12 were formal.

SOURCE 






Inflated Egos Require Inflated Grades

Studies show that the average grade has gone from a C to an A, not because of merit.  

“When everyone is somebody, then no one’s anybody.” —English dramatist Sir William Schwenck Gilbert, half of the Gilbert and Sullivan team that produced 14 comic operas

If Mr. Gilbert were alive today, he’d realize how prescient he truly was. In Britain, a new analysis published by the Office for Students (OfS) reveals that the number of students receiving top grades in their major courses of study is soaring. Between school years 2010-11 and 2017-18, the proportion of first-class honor degrees has increased from 16% to 29%. “In total, 94 per cent of the 148 universities and other higher education providers included in the analysis demonstrated a statistically significant unexplained increase in the proportion of first-class degrees awarded in 2017-18 compared to 2010-11,” the report states.

It’s no different here in America. A 2016 study, representing the first major update of a grade-inflation database in seven years, revealed that a staggering 42% of four-year college grades are A’s, and 77% are either A’s or B’s. This hyperinflation is the result of awarded A grades increasing at a rate of five to six percentage points per decade. As a result, A grades are now three times more common than they were in 1960.

“Back then, a C was the grade college students received most frequently,” explained college lecturer Vikram Mansharamani. “Later in the decade, the B took its place. Professors boosted students’ grades in part because if the students did too poorly, they could be shipped off to the war in Vietnam. The B reigned supreme until the 1990s, when the A claimed the crown. It’s been strengthening its lead ever since.”

British Education Secretary Damian Hinds stated the obvious with regard to the increases in his country. “It cannot be right that some students are awarded higher grades for the same level of achievement than those from previous years,” he declared. “We owe it to the hardworking students and institutions who play by the rules to stamp out this unfair practice.”

Who’s kidding whom? On both sides of the Atlantic, college tuition has skyrocketed, and students and their parents seemingly view higher grades as a better “bang for the buck,” regardless of whether or not such grades are truly merited. Moreover, when Princeton University tried to limit A’s to 35% of course grades, they ultimately abandoned the 10-year effort — because, according to Quartz, it created “a negative campus atmosphere” impacting applications to the school, and precipitated “unnecessary stress for students.”

When did a stress-free existence become the norm rather than the exception? When concern about a child’s self-esteem became a full-blown obsession among educators, therapists, and “helicopter” parents. Educators, therapists, and parents who nonetheless managed to flip the entire relationship between self-worth and accomplishment on its head, asserting countless times that one built self-esteem in order to educate, rather than educating to build self-esteem.

In short, everyone began getting a trophy just for showing up.

Unfortunately, this wholesale insulation from the vicissitudes of life is reaching metastatic proportions. On Monday, columnist Stephen Green revealed that a Millennial writer going over edits to her piece with her editor had a meltdown because the editor insisted that she spell the word “hamster” correctly — as in without a “p.” Not only did this triggered Millennial insist she could spell the word as she pleased, she texted her mother, who immediately called her back. When the mother was put on speakerphone, she not only defended her daughter’s misspelling, she suggested her daughter should file a complaint against the editor for not allowing her to be “creative.”

With regard to college, Mansharamani notes the seemingly irreversible trend apparent here. “Whether we want it or not, we’re effectively barreling towards a world without grades,” he asserts.

Not just without grades. Without anything resembling objective standards and meritocracy. A world where “hampster” will be accepted, lest someone’s feelings get hurt — or worse, because someone can actually file a successful grievance in the workplace for the same reason.

Too fantastic? Not when the “ego preservation at all costs” mindset is nurtured long before college becomes part of the equation. As the New York Post reports, 94% of students in grades 6-8 passed their math classes in the 2017-18 school year at the Bronx’s Science School for Exploration and Discovery, and 100% of the students at Harbor Heights middle school in Washington Heights passed their state English Language Arts classes. Yet when those same students took state tests, only 2% of the Mott Haven students passed the state math exams, and only 7% of the Washington Heights kids passed the ELA exams.

NYC’s Department of Education was unconcerned. “It’s apples and oranges to compare students’ classroom grades over the course of a full school year with their performance on a two-day state exam,” said DOE spokeswoman Danielle Filson.

No, what’s “apples and oranges” is the divergence of interests between students and their parents, and the Democrat/Education Union Complex. “It doesn’t serve students and parents well to think that the kids are performing at grade level if they’re not,” insists David Bloomfield, a Brooklyn College and CUNY Graduate Center education professor.

No doubt. But it certainly serves the interests of unions, whose sole reason for existence is to promote and protect the rights of its members. Such machinations also serve feckless politicians who can point to blatantly fraudulent graduation rate increases as evidence of their “success.”

“When you meet a dog who flinches from being petted, you can be pretty sure they’re abused at home,” Green states in reference to the snowflake scribe. “When you run across an adult-aged human who can’t take constructive criticism, you can be pretty sure they never got any from their parents, or maybe even not from their teachers. But the saddest part of this tale is that no one ever loved this young woman enough to provide her the guidance and discipline everyone needs to cope in the real world.”

Perhaps. Or perhaps, much like the elimination of shame, guidance and discipline will also be extinguished in an orgy of intersectionalist-inspired, self-serving emotionalism, where the only job “qualification” that matters will bear a striking resemblance to the “adversity score” included on the SAT test used for college admissions. Perhaps it’s the real world that will be making the adjustments to a Millennial Generation that considers itself the most stressed generation that ever lived. Perhaps there is no going back to a time and place where fortitude was more revered than self-pity.

And perhaps if Mr. Gilbert were alive today he’d issue the only warning that really matters to millions of Americans who can’t see where such “wokeness” ultimately leads:

When everyone’s a victim, then no one is.

SOURCE 





Half of Australian schoolkids can't name where bananas, bread and cheese come from - as Scott Morrison blames militant vegans for making students believe farming is wrong

And Australia is a major primary producing nation

Prime Minister Scott Morrison is baffled as to why almost half of Australian primary schoolkids can't name where bananas, bread and cheese come from - and think cotton comes from animals.

The father of two young daughters expressed his concern about Australia's potential future leaders to farmers at Dubbo, in the New South Wales central west.

Quoting an Australian Council for Educational Research study, he was perplexed as to why '75 per cent of grade six students believed cotton socks came from an animal and 45 per cent believed bananas, bread and cheese didn't come from farming'.

Mr Morrison suggested militant vegan activists were possibly to blame for 40 per cent of year 10 students believing farming was bad for the environment.

'Any wonder that we've now got activists storming farms,' he told the Daily Telegraph Bush Summit on Thursday.

'We have to bridge this divide and connect Australians once again with what's happening in our rural and regional communities and ensure there is an appropriate balance in what our kids are being taught in our schools and in our communities.'

Following a spate of farm invasions by animal rights activists, the Prime Minister has promised to tackle agricultural trespassing during the next sitting of Parliament.

'That legislation we'll deal with in the next fortnight,' Mr Morrison told Sydney radio 2GB broadcaster Alan Jones on Friday.

Mr Morrison also declared this week that 'our farmers are Australia's best environmentalists'.

Taxpayers from next year will be stumping up $10 million to fund city kid visits to farms.

'So that kids can understand what happens on farms, how things grow, and how that changes and supports their livelihoods and their daily lives,' Mr Morrison said.

SOURCE