The legislative frameworks and institutional policies to address students’ sexual victimisation in the selected South African rural and urban universities

Despite National and International commitments for gender equality and victims or survivours of sexual encounters, the envisaged protections, gaps in legislative frameworks, and institutional policies implementation exist, coupled with underreporting and inadequate institutional response. The student sexual victimisations in South African universities remain a persistent challenge, necessitating comprehensive legislative and institutional policies to ensure student safety and security for potential victims. Objectively, this study describes the effectiveness of existing legislative frameworks and institutional policies to address sexual victimisation in the selected South African rural and urban universities. This qualitative study used the descriptive research design to follow the predetermined steps of a documentary study, focusing on documentary sources and the electronic databases; the reviewed data was subjected to the non-probability: Purposive sampling for selections, the keywords/phrases were used to filter info relevant to the study objective, using the Qualitative Content Analysis (QCA), the collected data was restricted to 1979-2024 (not in sequence), with the six (6) phases of inductive Textual Content Analysis (TCA) employed for data analysis and identification of three (3) study themes. This study showcases key challenges, including staff-student power dynamics, lack of independent oversight and inconsistencies in legislative frameworks and institutional policies enforcement. The witnessed disparities between the selected South African universities and international best practices are shared, emphasising the need for victim/survivor-centred approaches, enhanced reporting mechanisms, and mandatory training programmes. The study concludes by proposing effective legislative frameworks and institutional policies as recommendations for strengthening institutional accountability, promoting awareness, and ensuring holistic support for victims. Key Words: Documentary study, Higher Education Institutions, Institutional policies, Legislative frameworks, Sexual victimisation, South African rural and urban universities, Victims/survivours