In the first annual measure of sexual health services in the UK Russell Group Universities, York achieved fourth place on a report card compiled by Dr Ed, an online doctor, released last Friday the 15th February.
In a comprehensive survey that measured multiple aspects of sexual health provision including contraceptive access, sexual assault service, student rating and special events, tested universities were given scores for each aspect of their sexual health provision and then a final degree class to represent how they had done overall.
This high score was of no surprise to one second-year English student, who said: “Considering how low we consistently score on university sex league tables” in reference to figures released by studentbeans.com in May, which revealed that we have a measly average of 4.08 sexual partners throughout the course of our degree. It would appear York’s collective lack of a sex life has some benefits.York gained full marks and an ‘A’ grade for the category ‘Special events and testing’, making this our highest scoring category. James Porter, from Dr Ed, explained that this was “specifically for holding termly HIV testing days in conjunction with local charities, promoting the testing days well so they have good attendance, and for having societies and/or events that promote sexual health”.
As a part of this, Porter specifically congratulated the YUSU Welfare and URY run ‘Summer of Love’ campaign last year. We were also awarded ‘A’ grades for ‘Opening hours’, ‘Drop Ins or bookings’ and ‘Location’.
York’s lowest score was for ‘website ease of use’, which gained an ‘F’, due to the lack of “clearly signposted” sexual health information on the main site, as well as there being “no specific sexual health page on the main university website”, or “links out to other sexual health resources on the web where students could go for further information”.
Another low score was for ‘Campus info’ for which York got a ‘D’ despite getting full marks for availability of information leaflets which was a part of that. What brought York down in this category was the lack of a “specific sexual health officer on campus whose role is to be available for students and to promote sexual health”, and limited “promotion of sexual health issues through regular campus publications”.
York also received a ‘D’ for the student rating which rationalises the good overall mark in the Dr Ed survey, due to the criticism University health care has received from students in the past. A third year economics student said that he couldn’t even “tell you where the nearest clinic is”, a rather negative view of university sexual health awareness and provisions that has been translated into lost marks on this league table.
Co-founder of the project, Amit Khutti told Vision that he hopes that this project will cause universities to “take actions to improve the services they offer”, with Porter adding that “our plan is to make ourselves available and to work alongside universities over the next year in order to improve their services.
“If universities want feedback and information from us, we will provide detailed feedback on areas they did well and badly.” This will prove especially important in light of recently announced cuts to NHS spending on sexual health provisions.
Pete Mercer, NUS Vice President told The Guardian: “The level of consistency in sexual health services is already a concern, particularly given recent sweeping changes in local health provision, and this gives all the more impetus to developing partnership and campaigning work to prevent a postcode lottery in the provision of what are vitally important services to the student community.”
Khutti explains that this score card was inspired by a similar project in the US, where universities are scored annually, and feedback is used to help universities improve their services. Porter compares the US universities to the Russell Group ones, being surprised by how anecdotal evidence seems to suggest that “universities in the US do more in terms of provision of service for victims of sexual assault. Universities in the US often have separate websites, sexual assault hotlines and specific counselling services within the university for victims of sexual assault, although no UK university provided a service like this.” York in fact got a ‘C’ for it’s ‘Sexual Assault Services’.
Welfare Officer Bob Hughes was pleased with the result, saying: “It’s good to see York high up for sexual health services, but I think there is still a way to go to get better. For example, central clear information from the YUSU and University websites is something we will be working on to make it as easy as possible for students to access, as well as central campus information.”
And he further adds that: “If you are wanting to get information and advice on your sexual health, you can visit the Health Centre for one of their drop-ins (Wednesdays 1-3 and Fridays 12-2 during term time, or for a full check up, there is the Monkgate GUM clinic in town.”
The expansion of the Dr Ed score card will provide data and feedback for universities, but in future Khutti plans to “look at expanding the next report to cover more universities” making it more comprehensive. Due to the research methods used, including a ‘mystery shopper’ along with surveys, he also hopes to “get some student volunteers to help us deliver the next one”.
View Dr Ed’s original report here.