During my second year at the University of Leicester, I went on a night out with friends. I got pretty drunk and accepted an offer to be walked home by a guy I had met in the club.

He told me he’d get an Uber at mine but ended up raping me.

I went to hospital and was seen at a rape crisis centre but initially didn’t report what had happened, either to the university or the police. I felt guilty, dirty, and scared of ruining another person’s life – because wouldn’t that make me just as bad as him? Instead, I sat in the corner at home, shaking and crying.

Back at university, I felt unsafe. Every time I ran into my attacker he walked up to me and smiled. He spread lies about me across campus. In February, I couldn’t take it anymore and finally told the university.

I didn’t hear anything until April and only found out in June that there had been a non-contact agreement, meaning he was not allowed to directly contact me but was allowed in the same room.

My university made this decision when I wasn’t present. People I had never met made their judgement from my written report, even though I’d had no template to follow and I wasn’t sure how much detail was required. Not knowing who would read it was traumatising. I felt completely out of control and like I wasn’t being taken seriously.

For my attacker, there were seemingly no consequences. The on-campus student nightclub wouldn’t ban him. He stayed in the sports club we were both in, after appealing a decision made by the committee to suspend him, and the university accepted him back to do a masters.

Meanwhile, I was desperate to talk to someone. I requested a counselling appointment at the student support help desk and felt lucky when I got a same day appointment. I poured my heart out to find a very shocked man staring at me, telling me he was a financial advisor.

Rape and sexual assault is still such a stigmatised subject I don’t think universities know where to start until it happens and survivors speak up.

I don’t think my university acted quickly or efficiently enough once I reported my rape but my story is not unique. An investigation by the BBC has found that over 700 allegations of sexual misconduct were reported to universities in 2018 but that in many cases, survivors feel like they have been ‘failed’ by the reporting process.

We are fighting an uphill battle. There is no clear consensus across educational institutes in the UK on how to handle sexual violence, which leaves us all vulnerable.

My university eventually invited me to a meeting with an independent investigator who looked over my report and told me I should go back to the police. I did, which meant the university dropped my case.

I was told a university investigation could definitely not be conducted while the police were involved, yet I recently found out this is in clear contradiction with policy guidelines produced by Pinsent Mason and UniversitiesUK.

Rape and sexual assault is still such a stigmatised subject I don’t think universities know where to start until it happens and survivors speak up.

My experience has led me to start a campaign, called #MeTooOnCampus, to make universities review their reporting strategy, raise awareness and to stop the culture of victim blaming.

We conducted research into how universities handle allegations of sexual abuse and highlighted six areas where they need to improve. We are asking for trauma specific counsellors on campus, an end to six-session caps on counselling, a review of the reporting system and Good Night Out accreditation for student nightclubs.

The University of Leicester have acted on our asks, which I hope will mean that this year’s intake of freshers will have a better experience if they ever have to go through something like I did.

However, rather than just supporting people after abuse has taken place, universities must put methods in place to prevent it happening. One easy thing could be to follow Glasgow University’s lead and put posters all over campus underlining that sexual assault is simply not OK.

Universities should also create a compulsory online module, to be completed by every student when they enroll. This could be backed up with lectures on what to do after abuse or assault has happened, as well as on what consent is and isn’t.

I would love to see a quick-acting, uniform and clear scheme for all universities in the UK: definitive rules on how they should respond, a time frame in which reports have to be dealt with and clear procedures and rules for universities to be follow.

I can’t turn back time on my own experience but a new approach would ease anxiety around sexual assault for all students, make us feel safer and make reporting and any subsequent trial far less scary.

In my opinion, people who have been accused of breaking university rules should be banned from campus while they are being investigated since lecture notes and library resources can be accessed online.

Universities are there to educate us, as well as for extracurricular activities that are supposed to help students thrive personally. If you break the rules and put other students at risk, you can study from your room just as well.

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