High spirited: This embrace is wholly innocent but other students go too far

Lying on the floor, surrounded by three, naked men, a young woman is subjected to a torrent of what is supposedly light-hearted ‘banter’. ‘Slag,’ shouts one of them, before instructing his friend to spit on her, to slap her and to ‘f****** do her’.

What happens next is too graphic to describe in a family newspaper, other than to say it involves the woman being treated like a piece of meat by the pack of cheering, jeering men.

And, of course, as is the way today, not only was the whole sordid scene filmed on a camera phone, but then, like some badge of honour, it was passed around social networking sites for thousands more to see.

That such behaviour could never be deemed acceptable goes without saying. But still, many will be surprised to learn that the protagonists in this deeply depressing tableau were undergraduates at one of Britain’s largest universities.

Some members of Leeds Metropolitan University’s rugby club, the Mail has been told, had drawn up a ‘bucket list’ of things they wanted to achieve in their final year. Group sex, it seems, was one of those ‘activities’.

But, as the footage shot in May attests, they weren’t just content with that. Instead, they chose to further degrade the woman — a consenting participant by all accounts — not just with their foul and derogatory language, but by allowing it to be filmed and further circulated.

While some may attempt to excuse such behaviour on the grounds that ‘laddish’ goings-on have been a staple of university life since time immemorial, others believe they are symptomatic of a far deeper malaise infecting the campuses of our universities.

For as the new academic year begins, student leaders are warning female freshers to prepare for a barrage of misogynistic abuse, harassment and worse from their male counterparts. Indeed, so widespread and, seemingly, acceptable has this ‘lad culture’ become that barely a week goes by without shocking examples of it being exposed.

Be it a club-night called ‘Freshers Violation’ at a nightspot in Leeds, or a student newspaper advising on how to make the date rape drug rohypnol, as happened at Imperial College London, everywhere boundaries are seemingly being crossed.

Worse still, a survey released by the National Union of Students (NUS) this week found that more than a third of female students have faced unwelcome sexual advances at university, including groping and inappropriate touching — offences so serious, they could result in jail terms if taken through the courts.

Worryingly, experts believe that prestigious establishments such as Oxford, Cambridge and other top universities are far from exempt from such behaviour.

This, they say, is due to the fact that the privileged young men who attend them are finding it increasingly difficult to cope with being in direct competition with empowered, young women in an ever-competitive world.

‘It is not working-class lads getting into university and bringing laddish culture with them, it is the privileged boys and young men who maybe feel a bit threatened,’ says Dr Alison Phipps, director of the Centre for Gender Studies at the University of Sussex.

‘This behaviour is a way of putting women back in their place. They are using sex and sexism to say, “this is our turf — get off it”.’

Among those to have experienced this type of behaviour first-hand is 19-year-old Jinan Younis, a theology student starting her second year at Cambridge University.

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Experts believe that prestigious establishments such as Oxford (pictured), Cambridge and other top universities are far from exempt from the 'laddish' behaviour

Within days of arriving at the university last year, she was invited to attend what is known as a ‘swap’ — a social event in which a male group from one college meets a female group from another.

‘The idea is you go to a restaurant where you can bring your own alcohol and everyone gets very, very drunk,’ says Jinan, who attended Altrincham grammar school, in Manchester.

‘It is a way of meeting people from other colleges and making friends. The problem is, swaps often have dressing-up themes that are really sexist.

‘The one I was invited to was entitled "What were you wearing when the police invaded the brothel?" I didn’t go. I just thought the message it gave off, as far as the sheer objectification of women, was terrible.’

Those fears were subsequently confirmed when Jinan learned of one male student whose sole claim to fame was that he had a ‘100 per cent success rate at swaps’.

Other types of offensive behaviour quickly reared their heads. Visiting her college bar one evening, Jinan was mystified when a male friend she approached refused to speak to her. Only later did she learn why.

Jinan explains: ‘The rugby team have a social game, the aim of which, essentially, is to have a boys’ night out. Their main idea is that “we don’t want to be distracted by girls”, (but they don’t use the word “girls”, it’s something far more vulgar).

‘But what that translates to is sheer sexism. Because, essentially, under the rules of the game, they are not allowed to speak to any woman, unless they are their waitress — if they do, they get punched in the face as a punishment.

'Basically, we had been reduced to objects who [the boys] couldn’t be friends with, but who they saw as either potential “conquests” or waitresses.’

The behaviour is not just confined to drink-soaked sports socials or nights out, but is spreading across all aspects of university life

Jinan is also particularly worried about how jokes about rape have become commonplace. Watching a game of ‘truth or dare’, she saw a male student being asked what was the ‘rapiest thing’ he had done.

‘He answered that he had made sure a girl was heavily drunk before attempting to kiss her, to which another boy replied, “that’s a pretty standard pulling technique for most guys”,’ says Jinan.

‘It’s worrying that some boys, studying to become doctors, lawyers, scientists and teachers, think it’s acceptable to take advantage of a girl.’

From talking to female friends at Cambridge and other universities, Jinan says all had experienced similar behaviour. Several told her their drinks had been spiked, and of indecent assaults they had suffered.

Just how widespread lad culture has become was highlighted last year in another NUS study. In interviews with students across the country, they gathered shocking examples of verbal and physical abuse young women are subjected to on a daily basis.

Anyone challenging this laddish behaviour was routinely accused of lacking a sense of humour, and told that what they were hearing was simply light-hearted ‘banter’.

At Warwick University, for example, a drinking game was conducted, in which male students chanted ‘women aren’t people’.

At another, unidentified establishment, a sports team held a social event in which one player wore a vest bearing the words ‘Campus Rapist’ on the front and ‘It’s not rape if you say surprise!’ on the back.

Then there was the first-year student who went on a pub crawl, organised by her halls of residence, which ended with drunk, male students forcefully removing female students’ bras.

‘All the girls were told to dress “slutty”,’ she said. ‘We also had to come up with a “slut” name, which the older students encouraged us to write across our breasts.

Toni Pearce, NUS national president, believes the culture among male students is being fuelled by websites such as Uni Lad and Lad Bible, as well as Facebook

‘On arriving at each bar, one of the older students would shout a code word for us to flash either our boobs or bottoms at men in the pub. I didn’t take part in this, or adopt a “slut” name, and was told I was being too “uptight” and not “getting in the spirit of freshers’ week”.’

Meanwhile, female students playing sport were repeatedly subjected to shouts of, ‘I’m going to put you in half’ from the touchline — slang meaning they intended to have sex with them until they could not walk.

Others reported how male students would target and humiliate women in nightclubs — playing games such as ‘whaling’, where young men compete to find, bed and ‘harpoon’ the ugliest girl in a bar or club.

But the concern is that this laddish behaviour is not just confined to drink-soaked sports socials or nights out, but is spreading across all aspects of university life.

Toni Pearce, the NUS national president, believes it is being fuelled by the internet and student websites such as Uni Lad and Lad Bible, as well as Facebook, where people are encouraged to post photos of their fellow students.

‘I’m not sure if attitudes have changed, but the way in which students are subjected to this kind of harassment certainly has,’ she says.

‘Nowadays, there are “confessions” pages, where you are asked to rate your fellow students based on whether you would have sex with them or not, and “spotted” pages, where you take pictures of women studying in the library.

‘Those pictures are uploaded on the internet without their consent and then rated from one to ten. Women can’t escape it, and there are no parts of their lives that are inaccessible through social media.

‘That creates a much more overwhelming environment for this behaviour. The internet facilitates it. These women have every right to be on their campus and no one has the right to intimidate them and make them feel they shouldn’t be there.’

As to who exactly is carrying out the abuse, there is little doubt that they are drawn from all walks of society. ‘I think that the misconception that they’re rough lads from rough backgrounds who have no respect for women, well, they’re not, they’re everywhere, they’re in all parts of the country,’ said one contributor to the NUS study.

Another said: ‘The one guy in my group of friends who went to an all-boys school, we went out in freshers’ week and I was like, “go in and buy some jugs,” and he grabbed my boob and said, “I’ll have this one”. I was shocked. I slapped him quite hard. I just didn’t know what to do.’

This does not surprise Dr Phipps, who believes that male students at university are feeling increasingly threatened.

‘I think this kind of sexist bullying is quite prominent because of this idea that women now have it all, that feminism has gone too far,’ she says.

‘We are so focused on results and performance within the higher education system, we teach them to see each other as adversaries, which is also part of the problem.

‘A certain class of men have probably been socialised historically to expect things, there is a sense of entitlement there, and I think that is what is being challenged for them. It may well be subconscious, but it is happening.’

Universities UK said institutions supported any students reporting incidents to the police (file picture)

As for Jinan, she believes the problem lies with a desperation to conform.

‘I think the template of masculinity given to young, British males is one of a laddish nature, a hyper-masculinity and a desire to conform to a rigid stereotype of how a man should act,’ she says.

‘When you get to university and are completely uprooted from your life at home, the first thing you want to do is find a group, and the quickest way to do that is to conform to some sort of culture.

‘I spoke to a guy who admitted he had become more sexist since getting to university, but that it was the quickest way to get accepted, which I thought was really telling.’

Universities say the issue has to be seen in a wider context. Nicola Dandridge, chief executive of Universities UK, says: ‘Universities take the welfare of their students very seriously and have internal rules relating to student behaviour.

‘Where students require support, there are a variety of services on-hand to listen to students, including welfare officers, advice centres and university counselling services.

‘If alleged criminal behaviour is involved, all universities would support any students reporting such incidents to the police. It is important to remember this is an issue for society generally, not just one confined to university students.’

As for Leeds Metropolitan University and the sex tape, a spokesman told the Mail they were ‘extremely disappointed that these students chose to act so irresponsibly’.

He said: ‘We undertook a full investigation following the incident and the players involved were dealt with in accordance with our disciplinary procedure.

We take these matters very seriously at our university — our Student Code of Discipline and anti-social behaviour policy set out an expectation that students will treat each other with courtesy, dignity and respect.

‘All of our sports clubs sign up to this code and policy and it is our expectation that all of our students, without exception, act responsibly at all times as ambassadors for our university.’