A third of young women face sexual harassment on university campuses while education bosses fail to tackle lad culture, the Nation Union of Students (NUS) warned yesterday.

A survey by the NUS published to coincide with the beginning of the new university term revealed that more than a third of women in university have faced unwelcome sexual advances.

The figures also showed that harassment is witnessed — but rarely reported — by 67 per cent of students.NUS president Toni Pearce accused university leaders of taking a “keep calm and carry on” approach to abuse at their institutions. 

“These stats show that harassment is rife on campus, but we still keep hearing from universities that there is no fear, no intimidation, no problem,” said Ms Pearce.

The survey showed most students were familiar with websites such as Unilad and The Lad Bible, both targeted at male students. 

Over 60 per cent of women students believed it was these websites that “contribute to an unfair representation of women” and fuel lad culture on campus. The Lad Bible was yesterday leading with “Bumday Monday” — a gallery of photos of young women posing in underwear.

A survivor of sexual abuse at university, who wanted to remain anonymous, explained how they were helping to blur the lines between socialising and harassment.

She told the Star: “It’s so normalised and everyday harassment occurs, but it’s then taboo to talk about how something so common is still so incredibly damaging.

“I think at the moment people are afraid of reporting because nothing will be done and they are afraid of further harassment from lack of protection.”

She said that many students were not clear what constituted harassment and many thought that everyone “put up with catcalls and thinking that’s ‘just life’ or being felt up but not raped so it isn’t ‘that bad’.”

NUS data showed that 60 per cent of students did not know about university rules against sexual harassment and intimidation. 

Our source added: “Universities need to have easy, functional and safe reporting systems for students, which don’t place any blame on the victim or observer of harassment.

“They need to make sure everyone knows those systems exist and actually take reports seriously with consequences for the student who harassed someone. I’ve been through a major London uni’s reporting process for complaining against a student and the process not only took months, but the report blamed me for feeling assaulted because he claimed he was having a calm conversation with me about something unrelated.”

Ms Pearce echoed that change was needed in the way sexual harassment and assault is dealt with on campus. 

“We need a new deal for students,” she said. 

“Nobody should feel diminished, disrespected or unsafe on campus and it is vital that behaviours resulting in this are challenged.”