From Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science
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This report presents the findings of an anonymous online survey examining the prevalence and impact of bullying and related negative experiences among students across higher education institutions (HEIs) in Ireland. This survey was commissioned by The Department for Further and Higher Education, Innovation and Science. The survey included five areas a) Demographic variables, including gender, age, ethnicity and sexual orientation; b)Respondents’ awareness of bullying in Higher Education; c) Exposure to online/offline bullying in the institution, as targets, witnesses (i.e., bystanders) and perpetrators; d) Individual variables that - based on previous literature - may be related to bullying in higher education, such as prejudice towards minority groups; e) Contextual variables, including institutional culture and
implementation of anti-bullying policies.
A total of 2,573 students aged between 18 and 65+ engaged with the online survey. Of these, the three most frequent identities were 65% female, 25.3% male, and 2.8% identified as Other. 2.7% did not disclose their gender identity. Data were collected during the first semester of 2022/2023 academic year, as students were returning to first semester after remote learning due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Findings showed that just under a fifth of higher education students (18.4%) endured negative acts (such as bullying online or offline) over the last academic year.
Of these, 16.6% of the entire sample occasionally (“now and then”) endured negative acts (such as bullying in offline or online). The most commonly experienced type of negative acts experienced “now and then” in offline scenarios were “being gossiped about in real life” (37.5%). In comparison, the most commonly experienced type of negative acts experienced “now and then” in online scenarios were “gossiped about on social media by another student” (11.9%). Almost a quarter (23.1%) of respondents who experienced negative acts reported being bullied for several months.
In the majority of cases, the perpetrator of bullying was another student on the same course (37.1%), or another student in the same HEI (23.4%). Other identified perpetrators were less frequently reported, such as a lecturer/professor (9.6%). Students registered as full-time experienced more negative acts (18.7%) than those registered as Part-time (16%).
Overall, minority groups, such as ethnic minorities, LGBTQ+ respondents and respondents with a neuro diversity or disability were more likely to endure negative acts at College or University, such as bullying and cyberbullying compared to majority groups (i.e., those who identified as heterosexuals, ethnic majority groups and respondents with no disabilities or no neuro diversity).
In relation to students with a disability or neurodiversity, respondents who identified as having an ongoing Illness reported the highest levels of negative experiences “Every Now and Then” (50%). In contrast, respondents with a Neurological condition reported the highest levels of “Daily” negative acts, such as bullying or cyberbullying (12.5%). Respondents who reported being Deaf, hard of hearing, Blind, or visually impaired, or having a physical or mobility-related disability reported no negative experiences.
With respect to witnessing incidents of negative acts, 31.6% of respondents indicated that they had witnessed bullying at their College/University in the past year. 59.1% of those that witnessed bullying reported that they had taken action to help the target when confronted with bullying.
In most cases, those who reported experiences of bullying others, identified “gossiping about someone” as the most frequent behaviour “Every now and then” (37.3%) and “excluding someone from an in-person group” (15.6%). Other behaviours such as “picking on others in an online game” (0.8%) and “picking on someone in real life (2.2%) were less frequently reported.
The majority of respondents who were targeted were not sure why this was the case (“Don’t know why”,45.7%), or said this was due to another unspecified reason ( “Other”,27.6%), due to “Physical Appearance” (18.3%) and “Gender” (10.5%). Although 42.4% of survey respondents were aware that their institution had an anti-bullying policy, 56.6% were unsure whether their HEI had an anti-bullying policy and 1% reported that their institution did not have an anti-bullying policy. 35.8% “Strongly agreed” that bullying is against the values of their College/University. 16.5% “Strongly agreed” that their college makes an active effort to tackle bullying (e.g. through awareness raising initiatives and anti-bullying programmes). Only 11.5% of respondents “Strongly agreed” that Bullying goes unnoticed in my college.
Overall, these findings offer an overview of bullying experiences endured by students within HEIs in Ireland. Providing HEI students and staff with further awareness raising initiatives and training opportunities along with a continued and sustainable effort towards a more inclusive culture are among the recommended strategies to challenge negative acts such as bullying and cyberbullying in HEIs.
The study aims to:
Outlines the procedure and survey of the report
Outlines the sample size of those survey, age, gender identity, ethnicity and whether they reported a disability or neuro diversity.
Outlines the key findings of the study
Outlines discussions had around the key findings
What recommendations have been made to the Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science and the Higher Education Institutions.
