61% of Bristol students think consent classes should be mandatory

Consent is a hot topic within the student bubble, and with that, consent classes have gained prominence in the past few years.

Therefore, this month The Tab conducted a survey on sexual consent. The data collected by the survey reveals that 61% of students at Bristol University think that consent classes should be compulsory.

However, this survey also revealed that 39% of the 1062 people who responded said that the classes were patronising, while only 36% had ever attended one.

Notably though, very few students had strong feelings regarding their dislike of consent classes, as a tiny 3% actually walked out of the classes.

A screenshot from the Bristol Consent quiz given to students

What these results reveal is that this is a divisive issue at universities, including Bristol.

Despite the fact that a majority of students think that they are important enough to be compulsory, it is clear that many do not feel this way. Both sides clearly have a point, consent is (in my opinion) taught too late.

University students are adults and a lot of the time are already sexually active when they get to university.

Therefore is it really surprising that many see consent classes as patronising? However this comes with a huge caveat that rape and sexual assault at universities, including Bristol is a real and serious problem.

It is obvious that a large proportion of the student population accept this, but the debate remains as to how helpful consent classes actually are in addressing the problem of rape on campus. I have said it before and I will say it again, consent should be taught at school, BEFORE the majority of teenagers become sexually active.