#3 Preparing for the Gender-Based Violence (GBV) Code: Safe Environments and Systems

This article is the third instalment in a 12-part series supporting institutions to prepare for the proposed National Code to Prevent and Respond to Gender-Based Violence in Higher Education.

When we talk about safety in higher education, it’s easy to default to personal responsibility (…be alert, walk in groups, download the app etc.). But the Safe Environments and Systems standard flips that thinking by shifting the onus from individuals to institutions. Instead of telling students and staff to keep themselves safe, the Code asks:

What the standard says

Institutions must proactively create safe, inclusive, and respectful learning, working and living environments. This means:

• Physical safety (campus design, lighting, transport),

• Digital safety (online platforms, reporting tools),

• Cultural safety (inclusive environments for all identities), and

• Systems that reduce the risk of GBV and improve early intervention.

For leaders and decision-makers

Creating safe environments is about system design. Here are five strategic focus areas:

• Audit your spaces and systems: What messages are your environments sending? Consider lighting and visibility on campus pathways, security presence and accessibility, building design (e.g. secure access) public transport options after hours, placement or fieldwork arrangements, and student digital portals and learning systems.

  
  

• Design for inclusion: Safety is not experienced equally. International, LGBTIQA+, First Nations, and students with disability often report higher rates of harm and lower trust in institutional responses. Are your spaces and systems inclusive? Examples include gender-neutral toilets and housing options, quiet rooms for neurodiverse students, easy-read reporting options and interpreter access, and partnerships with culturally specific support services.

  
  

• Embed safety into risk and operational planning: Are GBV-related risks considered in campus master planning, infrastructure upgrades, tech system procurement and placement policies? This work should sit alongside other risk categories like fire safety or cyber security.

  
  

• Link with broader safety strategies: There’s often duplication across health and safety, student wellbeing, and security. Use this standard to connect the dots. Is GBV included in your critical incident response? Do safety teams understand trauma-informed practice? Is there one contact point for reporting unsafe spaces?

For practitioners leading the work

This standard is an opportunity to expand the conversation. GBV prevention is a cross-function issue and should never be the sole responsibility of wellbeing or equity teams 

• Start With a shared map: Bring together stakeholders from campus facilities and infrastructure, student housing (on- and off-campus), security and transport, ICT/digital teams, student experience and equity portfolios. Ask: What environments and systems do we control and how do they support or undermine safety?

  
  

• Use student voice to identify gaps: Run a short pulse survey, focus group, or open forum on where students feel unsafe and why. These insights are often more revealing than what’s logged through formal reporting. Involve students and staff in a ‘safety walkthrough’ - what they notice will be different from what you do.

  
  

• Build prevention into the everyday: Look for ‘entry points’ to build GBV prevention into training and student handbooks, orientation and campus tours, risk assessments for events, off-campus activities or technology updates (e.g. adding safety info to student portals).

This standard reminds us that safety is not just the absence of harm, it’s the presence of systems, environments, and behaviours that support dignity, inclusion, and respect.

Interested to learn more? Interested to learn more? Read the rest of our series: Raising the Standard: A Practical Blog Series on Preventing GBV in Higher Education