Impact and Engagement

Findings from Safer Universities (Smith, 2022; Willis & Smith, 2024) were cited in Western Sydney University's successful Athena Swan Silver Award application, which recognised ten years of progress in gender equity, diversity and inclusion and used these studies as part of the evidence base for informing what genuine institutional commitment to gender, equity, diversity and inclusion (GEDI) looks like.

Dr Erika (Rik) Smith has been invited to present at the Asia-Pacific Academic Mental Health Symposium, bringing together higher degree candidates, researchers, practitioners and sector leaders working to improve mental health and wellbeing in higher education.

The symposium provides an opportunity to share findings from the Safer Universities project to contribute to emerging conversations about preventing harm, supporting staff, and strengthening institutional responses across the higher education sector.

Research from the Safer Universities project was presented at the 2026 European Educational Research Association (EERA) Conference in Tampere, Finland.

The presentation compared evidence on student-perpetrated violence in Australian and Swedish universities and contributed to international discussions about workplace safety, wellbeing and institutional responses to violence and harm in higher education.

The conference provided an opportunity to engage with researchers from across Europe and beyond and to situate Australian findings within broader global conversations about safer universities.