MANCHESTER — The University of Manchester has launched a formal investigation after about 20 female medical students reported receiving anonymous late-night phone calls involving sexual harassment and intimidation. The university is also undertaking a wider review of cultural and systemic issues identified through the complaints.
According to Charlotte Buttercase, a final-year medical student and one of those targeted, the anonymous calls have occurred for at least three years. Female students who received them were told they were being watched, asked to perform sexual favours, or screamed at with gender-based slurs. On the night of 16 April alone, 16 calls were made within a 22-minute span, with Buttercase being the fifth woman contacted.
“On 16 April I was phoned at 2am from an anonymous, no-caller ID and in a two-minute interaction I was subjected to sexually harassing comments. Given I was alone in a dark room at 2am – it was one man speaking and three men laughing – I felt incredibly intimidated, demeaned and belittled by this event,” Buttercase said.
Buttercase wrote an open letter to the university’s vice-chancellor, Duncan Ivison, calling for a formal review of what she described as a “pervasive culture of sexual harassment” in the school of medical sciences. “If one less young woman feels unsafe in her own home, feels less alone in experiencing these attempts to intimidate and belittle her, then we have succeeded,” she wrote in the letter.
Prof Ashley Blom, the vice-president and dean of the faculty of biology, medicine and health, said the issues raised were “deeply concerning” and would be treated with the “utmost seriousness.” “No member of our community should ever experience behaviour that makes them feel unsafe, intimidated or harassed,” Blom said. He added, “We will continue to take whatever action is necessary to address the issues identified and deliver meaningful, lasting change. We know that our students and colleagues must have confidence that concerns will be listened to, taken seriously and acted upon.”
Henry Budden, BMA medical students’ committee co-chair, condemned the incidents, stating, “These incidents are appalling and have no place in medical school or education. This deplorable behaviour violates the rights of thousands of medical students to be safe, secure and supported whilst training to become doctors.”