NUS officer Hareem Ghani says there is an urgent need for institutions to be transparent about the prevalence of sexual violence affecting their students

Hundreds of students are being raped and sexually assaulted in British educational institutions every year.

Shocking new figures reveal that at least 463 sex attacks were reported by female university students during the past two years – equating to one suspected victim a day during term time.

But rape crisis groups warned last night that the figures were likely to be a ‘gross underestimate’ after 28 top universities refused to release statistics.

Rachel Krys, from End Violence Against Women, said: ‘These are disturbing numbers, but they are just the tip of the iceberg.

‘There is a laddish culture at our universities that believes highly sexualised behaviour towards women is somehow acceptable – that it is all just banter. Universities are not doing enough to tackle this problem.’

Figures from 70 leading institutions show the majority of alleged offenders were male students. Male tutors were accused of being the culprits in a handful of cases.

The University of Oxford and Durham University had the largest number of recorded rape and sex assault allegations in the past two years, with 36 incidents apiece.

At Cambridge, a male tutor was accused of sexually assaulting a female student. Similar tutor-pupil sex allegations were made at Lincoln, Glasgow, Kingston and East Anglia universities.

In London, there were 15 claims of sexual assaults at the School of Oriental and African Studies, two attacks in the halls of residence at the University of Westminster and three reported at London South Bank University.

Falmouth University had 16 reports of suspected sex assaults, including one on a male student.

The University of Oxford and Durham University (pictured) had the largest number of recorded rape and sex assault allegations in the past two years, with 36 incidents apiece

Hareem Ghani, National Women’s Officer at the National Union of Students (NUS), said: ‘This data shows that incidents, whether perpetrated by students or by staff, are far too common for women students.’

An NUS survey previously revealed that one in seven women claimed to have experienced a serious physical or sexual assault while studying at university. More than a third said they sometimes felt unsafe visiting their university in the evening.

Almost a third of universities contacted by The Mail on Sunday refused to reveal how assault allegations were made. Fourteen institutions – including Warwick, Nottingham Trent and York universities – even claimed that such disclosure under the Freedom of Information Act would breach confidentiality rules.

Ms Ghani said: ‘There is an urgent need for institutions to be transparent about the prevalence of sexual violence affecting their students.

‘This includes implementing a centralised reporting system so that incidents can be effectively monitored and to ensure survivors are being properly supported.’

A Government inquiry was launched last year to tackle violence against women at universities. A task force of university heads has also been set up to ‘bring about a cultural change’.