In September 2021, Nottingham Trent University (NTU) and Nottingham Trent Students’ Union (NTSU) collectively launched a collaborative programme of over 300 90-minute workshops to 1st year incoming undergraduate students. The programme, the biggest of its kind in the United Kingdom, consisted of face-to-face workshops delivered across the academic year by trained student and colleague volunteers. The programme successfully reached over 6,000 1st year students, raising awareness of consent, building skills around giving and receiving consent, busting myths around sexual violence, and increasing confidence in signposting to support.

Early days of the programme

The Consent is Everything programme, appropriately named, has been a long time in the making. In January 2018, NTSU was approached by student members of the feminist society, enquiring about consent workshops for students. NTSU and NTU created a working group of relevant members of staff and students to design content and pilot a workshop. Inclusive of best-practice evidence and behaviour-change theory, the workshops were designed to be created with students and peer-led in facilitation and the content was created to be positive, skill-building, and empowering. Piloting just 5 workshops in 2019/2020, the programme continued to grow year after year, with a quantitative post-workshop survey displaying that programme objectives were being met and satisfaction was high.

In January 2020, an NTU student submitted a request to NTSU in the form of a ‘Big Idea’ requesting the workshops be made compulsory. NTSU lobbied the idea and the workshops were successfully approved! Adapting the programme on a large-scale required time, dedication, and staffing, and after months of planning, the programme launched in September 2021.

Workshops recommended by peers

We are immensely proud to share that across the year, we delivered 305 workshops to 6,285 NTU Students. Students overwhelmingly recommended the workshop to their peers. The vast majority of students gained confidence and skills in giving and receiving consent. 72% of participants filled out the post-workshop survey. Results are detailed below.

• 88% are more aware of situations that require consent.
• 89% are more aware of sexual assault myths present in society.
• 90% are more confident in giving consent in situations that require it.
• 92% are more confident in receiving consent in situations that require it.
• 96% know how to signpost another student if they are sexually assaulted or raped.
• 90% would recommend the workshop to other students.

Look out for this year’s workshops…

In just a couple weeks’ time, the second year of workshops begin. Taking account of student, volunteer, and stakeholder feedback throughout the year, the workshops and programme have been updated and re-designed, to be more inclusive of our diverse and ever-growing NTU population and to be more effective for our students.

We want to thank the 70+ students and staff members who are dedicating their time to facilitate the workshops, contributing to a programme that we hope will change lives, empower students to make positive and healthy choices, and create a culture or respect and consent that everyone deserves.

Katrina Daoud, NTU Sexual Violence Project Officer