56 sexual misconduct cases handled by autonomous universities in past 3 years: Ong Ye Kung
SINGAPORE — A total of 56 disciplinary cases involving sexual misconduct were handled by autonomous universities over the past three years, said Education Minister Ong Ye Kung in Parliament on Monday (6 May), with about 66 per cent of the cases related to voyeurism.
Of the 56 cases handled by the six autonomous universities in Singapore, 14 were committed by students outside of campuses.
No “discernible trend” was shown in terms of the occurrence of such cases, with the rate hovering around 0.20 to 0.21 per 1,000 students over the last three years, said Ong, who was responding to questions by several Members of Parliament on sexual misconduct on campus.
There were 21 cases in Academic Year 2017, 18 in Academic Year 2016, and 17 cases in Academic Year 2015, he pointed out.
25 out of the 56 cases were from the National University of Singapore (NUS). Two cases were from the Yale-NUS College, which were managed by its own Board of Discipline separate from the NUS.
Twenty cases were from the Nanyang Technological University (NTU) and six were from Singapore Management University (SMU).
The rest - Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD), Singapore Institute of Technology (SIT) and Singapore University of Social Sciences - had one case each.
The number of cases for each autonomous university was closely related to their student numbers, said Ong.
Victims in 37 cases made police reports. Of these, four of them are still under investigation while two separate cases had insufficient evidence to make out offences, he added.
Of the remaining 31 cases, which involved serious offences such as outrage of modesty or multiple instances of voyeurism, 10 resulted in jail terms of between 10 days and eight months.
Ong’s comments in Parliament come amid the furore over the handling by NUS of the incident involving Nicholas Lim, a male NUS student who was caught filming undergraduate Monica Baey, 23, in a hostel toilet in November last year, and the perceived light punishments that Lim received.
The NUS Board of Discipline had ordered Lim, also 23, to be suspended for one semester. In addition, he was banned from entering into hostel premises on campus, had to undergo counselling sessions and was ordered to write a letter of apology to Baey.
Lim, who was a first-time offender, was also given a 12-month conditional warning by the police. If he were to commit another offence over the following 12 months after the warning, he would be prosecuted for both offences.
Types of punishment imposed by universities
Separately, the autonomous universities will carry out their own disciplinary processes, through their respective disciplinary bodies, and mete out a combination of penalties that are within their powers, said Ong.
These range from an official reprimand - reflected in the student’s formal educational record -, to suspensions, and expulsion, “the harshest punishment an autonomous university can administer”, he added.
To determine the appropriate penalties, the severity of the misconduct and any mitigating factors, such as how remorseful and forthcoming the offender was during investigations, the potential for rehabilitation, and the presence of any mental health issues, will be taken into account.
For offenders with psychiatric conditions, sanctions will include requiring them to start, or continue, with mandatory counselling and psychological treatment.
Of the 56 cases, five are pending disciplinary hearings. Four students withdrew from the university before sanctions were imposed, Ong said.
Of the 47 remaining cases: 34 resulted in an official reprimand, 26 resulted in suspensions of up to two academic terms, and 20 were banned from entering students’ dorms, Ong added, noting that offenders typically receive a combination of penalties.
Among the 10 cases that resulted in jail sentences, there was one expulsion, said Ong. This was subsequently reduced to an 18-month suspension after appeal and taking into account the offender’s psychiatric condition, he added.
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