Subject: Urgent Call to Adopt Brook’s Consent & Bystander Training for University Students

Dear Student Wellbeing Team,

I hope this message finds you well.

My name is [introduce yourself].

As of August this year, the Office for Students has made bystander and sexual consent training a mandatory requirement for university registration (Condition E6). As a charity that is run by students, for students, we strongly encourage your university to implement Brook’s “Consent for Students Training” and “Active Bystander Training” online courses for your student body — to be completed by all incoming students during Freshers Week, or potentially as part of their enrolment process beforehand.

Both courses are SCORM-compliant and easily integrated into university Learning Management Systems, allowing easy access for students. More importantly however, they’re designed to tackle a deeply pressing issue: the prevalence of sexual harassment and violence on UK campuses.

The need for education on consent and bystander intervention has never been more urgent:

• A recent national report found that 62% of students and graduates have experienced sexual violence at UK universities.
• 8% of female respondents reported having been raped at university — double the national estimate.
• Among those who knew their perpetrator, 75% said it was another student from the same university.
• Only 51% of students believed there was even a shared understanding of what consent means on their campus.

This paints a devastating picture, one in which students are left vulnerable — not just to harm, but also to confusion, peer pressure, and a lack of institutional clarity. The first week of university, often called the “Red Zone”, is an especially high-risk period. The mix of young adults away from home for the first time, often surrounded by alcohol and social pressure, creates a volatile environment. One study reported that 1 in 5 students experience some form of sexual harassment during their very first week of term.