SafeEduBrazil: Data-Driven Evidence, Events, and Measurable Impact on Safer Campuses

SafeEduBrazil was fundamentally designed as an evidence-led intervention, ensuring that policy dialogue, institutional reform, and capacity-building activities were firmly grounded in the lived realities of women within Brazilian higher education. At the core of the project was the generation, analysis, and translation of large-scale empirical data into actionable institutional and policy outcomes, supported by strategically designed national and international engagement events.

Robust Data Collection and Methodological Rigor

The project collected primary quantitative data from 311 respondents across Brazilian higher education institutions, with 247 valid responses retained for rigorous statistical analysis, representing a 62.4% response rate, well above acceptable thresholds for social research reliability. Respondents included undergraduate and postgraduate students from multiple disciplines and cities, with women comprising the majority of participants, reflecting the gendered nature of the issue being investigate.

The survey instrument was carefully designed to capture not only experiences and witnessing of violence, but also perceptions of its underlying causal drivers. Six distinct forms of violence were measured, including physical violence, forced sexual intercourse, sexual coercion, unwelcome sexual remarks, movement monitoring, and restriction of access to education. Rather than binary “yes/no” questions, respondents assessed frequency using a five-point scale ranging from never to always, enabling a nuanced understanding of prevalence and intensity.

The findings revealed that gender-based violence is neither rare nor incidental within Brazilian universities. For example, only 37 out of 247 respondents reported never experiencing or witnessing unwelcome sexual jokes or remarks, while over 55 respondents indicated such behaviour occurred often or always. Similarly, 78 female respondents reported movement monitoring, and 56 female students disclosed restrictions on their access to education, demonstrating how violence extends beyond physical acts into control, surveillance, and structural exclusion

Analytical Insights: Structural and Institutional Drivers of Violence

A defining contribution of SafeEduBrazil was the application of Fuzzy Synthetic Evaluation (FSE), allowing complex and overlapping social phenomena to be analysed beyond conventional descriptive statistics. This approach enabled the project to rank the relative influence of five causal dimensions: individual, interpersonal, community, institutional, and societal factors.

The results were unequivocal. Societal factors ranked as the most influential driver of violence, with an agreement index of 3.791, followed closely by institutional factors (3.396). Individual-level factors ranked lowest, directly challenging narratives that frame violence as the result of personal behaviour rather than systemic failure. Respondents consistently identified culture of impunity, unequal gender dynamics, patriarchal norms, weak institutional accountability, and lack of trusted reporting mechanisms as dominant causes of violence on campus

Crucially, female respondents rated institutional failures significantly higher than male respondents, with statistically significant differences in perceptions of suppressed civil society, abuse of power, lack of attention to violence in formal agreements, and institutional silence. This gendered divergence in perception reinforced the project’s central argument: women experience universities as structurally unsafe spaces, not merely socially uncomfortable ones.

From Data to Action: Publications and Knowledge Dissemination

SafeEduBrazil translated its empirical findings into peer-reviewed academic outputs, ensuring both scholarly credibility and long-term accessibility of evidence. To date, the project has delivered:

• Two peer-reviewed journal articles, including a major publication in Societies (MDPI), which provides one of the most comprehensive quantitative examinations of violence against women and girls in Brazilian higher education using advanced analytical techniques

• One international conference paper, disseminating findings to academic, policy, and practitioner audiences beyond Brazil, and positioning the project within global debates on gender-based violence in education

These publications ensure that SafeEduBrazil’s evidence base continues to inform research, teaching, and policy well beyond the funding period.

Impactful Events: Translating Evidence into Institutional Learning

The project’s two flagship workshops, delivered in Belém, Brazil, and Reading, United Kingdom, played a critical role in transforming data into institutional awareness and action.

The in-person workshop in Belém convened 26 participants, including students, academic staff, professional services, and gender-equality specialists from partner universities. Importantly, this workshop provided a safe, facilitated environment where participants could contextualise the survey findings with lived experience. Many participants explicitly acknowledged that the data reflected realities they had previously felt unable to articulate, particularly around fear of retaliation, lack of trust in reporting systems, and normalisation of harassment. This event directly supported student empowerment, validating their experiences through empirical evidence rather than anecdote.

The hybrid international workshop hosted by the University of the Built Environment in the UK engaged 18 participants from the UK and Brazil, including senior academics and institutional leaders. Here, Brazilian data were critically examined alongside UK safeguarding frameworks, enabling comparative reflection on governance, accountability, and survivor-centred practice. The workshop created a rare policy translation space, where evidence moved beyond academic discussion into practical questions of institutional reform, leadership responsibility, and cross-national learning.

Collectively, these events reached dozens of direct participants and indirectly influenced hundreds of students and staff through internal dissemination, teaching discussions, and follow-on activities within partner institutions.

Institutional and Policy Influence

SafeEduBrazil has already begun to influence university-level policy conversations. Partner institutions have used the project’s findings to review and strengthen:

• Gender-based violence and safeguarding policies

• Confidential reporting pathways

• Referral mechanisms to counselling and support services

• Staff training on survivor-centred responses

Importantly, the data provided institutions with defensible, evidence-based justification for reform. Rather than relying on isolated complaints, universities now have statistically robust evidence demonstrating that violence is systemic, gendered, and institutionally mediated. This has increased the likelihood that policy changes will be sustained rather than symbolic.

Long-Term and Sustainable Impact

The long-term impact of SafeEduBrazil lies in its structural reframing of campus safety. By demonstrating that violence is driven primarily by societal and institutional factors, the project shifts responsibility from individual victims to universities as duty-bearers. This reframing has implications for future policy design, staff training, curriculum content, and leadership accountability.

The project has also strengthened UK–Brazil research capacity, establishing durable partnerships between UEMA, UFPA, and UBE, and generating new collaborative funding applications and comparative research agendas. SafeEduBrazil now serves as a replicable model for evidence-led gender-equality interventions across Latin America and beyond.

SafeEduBrazil demonstrates how rigorous data, critical analysis, and well-designed events can work together to produce meaningful institutional change. By centring women’s voices, quantifying structural injustice, and translating evidence into policy-relevant insights, the project has made a tangible contribution to safer, more inclusive higher education environments in Brazil—and provided a blueprint for future global gender-equality initiatives.