Elizabeth Broderick, University of Sydney Vice Chancellor Michael Spence and the head of the Women's College, Amanda Bell. Credit:Peter Rae Instead, the review relied on 43 group discussions with more than 573 current students, averaging 13 students per discussion. It also conducted 16 one-on-one interviews with recent alumni "at the specific request of participants", and received one confidential submission from a former student. The colleges being investigated were responsible for recruiting former students to participate in the review by sending emails to their university email addresses. Bianca Fileborn, a lecturer in criminology at UNSW who has conducted extensive research into sexual assault and harassment in various settings, said her main concern was that the review was almost exclusively done with current students from residential colleges.

Academics and student groups say a landmark report into sexual harassment and assault at Sydney University colleges was "watered down". Credit:Dominic Lorrimer "University colleges are very close-knit communities and that can make it very difficult for people living in college settings to be openly critical of their experiences," Dr Fileborn said. "It also means that people who have had less positive experiences may have left the colleges and those experiences weren't captured by the report. I understand that a very small number of former students came forward. Report author Elizabeth Broderick Credit:Alex Ellinghausen "I would be treating those sexual harassment and assault findings as baseline figures that underestimate the extent."

A spokeswoman for the University of Sydney said that students were given a "range of options" in engaging with the review, including discussion groups, one-on-one interviews and confidential submissions. Former St Andrew's student Kendra Murphy. Credit:Jessica Hromas "35 students requested to have a one-on-one interview with the review," the spokeswoman said. "In addition, recent alumni, those who left college from 2014, were sent emails inviting them to contact the review directly if they wished to contribute to the project. "As a broad examination of culture the Broderick Review was not engaged to conduct an investigation into individual incidents or complaints, nor to examine historical culture or historical incidents. "

End Rape on Campus ambassador Nina Funnell said it was disturbing to learn that the colleges were in control of recruiting the alumni participants, and that only 17 individual alumni were involved. "If the Broderick team repeat the same methodology when they review St Paul's College next year, it will mean that no female students will be quoted in the next review and that St Paul's students will be entrusted to self-report their own culture," Ms Funnell said. Ms Broderick and her team are currently conducting a similar review into St Paul's College, which initially refused to participate in the cultural review on the back of stiff internal resistance but sought to join the process nearly a year after it began. Kendra Murphy, a former student of St Andrew's College who experienced an alleged assault at the college, said that she was never approached to participate in the university-wide review. "It baffles me as to how the people behind the report could be so blind," Ms Murphy said.

"It's the [students] who've left, and left for a reason, who should be providing opinions." The Freedom of Information documents also reveal frustration within the highest levels of university management over how the university's handling of sexual assault allegations had been received. "We look in the public conversation as if our concern for student welfare in this area is just so much hot air," Vice-Chancellor Michael Spence wrote in an email in May 2016. Loading "That is deeply unfair to all of us, but particularly you and your team, who have been working so hard and compassionately with the students in this area. And we have done much. But we do really only have ourselves to blame if the public does not believe that we have."

On Tuesday, a report from the Australian Human Rights Commission found that 32 out of 39 Australian universities, including the University of Sydney, have accepted all nine recommendations made by the commission to improve responses to sexual harassment on campus.