Women 'rated' as part of college hazing, landmark report reveals

Female students have been assigned ratings based on their sexual desirability or shamed about their sex lives as part of hazing and college "traditions" at some Australian universities.

One student was sexually assaulted and had the experience broadcast over the residential college's PA system as a "hook up", a landmark report on sexual assault and harassment at Australia's universities revealed.

The Australian Human Rights Commission report described one hazing challenge where new first-year female students at a college had to "run the gauntlet" along a corridor lined with male residents and drink from cask wine sacks in their trousers.

One college held an annual "feral women's night" where first-year female residents were force fed alcohol, told to remove their tops and serve drinks to older male residents while being subjected to derogatory comments and chants, the report said.

First-year female residents were rated according to their sexual desirability and told to wear as little as possible to a party for the men who lived in the college, one former resident told the commission.

The report said hazing practices often involved excessive alcohol consumption, performing humiliating and degrading acts, and in many cases the sexual assault and harassment of female residents.

"You had to participate. There was nothing you could do about it," one student said.

"The administration knew about this and they condoned this."

The report said some college traditions involved male residents singing songs or chants that encouraged sexual violence against women.

Women were often shamed on the basis of their sex lives while male college residents were glorified or praised, it said.

"Conquests of guys getting girls from other colleges were broadcast weekly in this gossip section the whole college had, where you would submit your experiences to an executive, and on weeknights we would gather and hear about everyone's conquests that week," one submission said.

"Women were described as objects or trophies."

Sex Discrimination Commissioner Kate Jenkins said there was a worrying perception colleges were aware of the hazing and college traditions and did nothing to prevent them.

"The fact that these behaviours continue to exist in colleges and that they involve sexual assault and sexual harassment of students, who in some cases are in their first week or even their first day in college, is deeply concerning."