UK universities have regularly used non-disclosure agreements to silence university students who report their sexual assault — to the tune of more than $1.6 million, according to a BBC News report.

Students say their university threatened to expel them, isolated them from others, or bullied them into silence about their attack and how the college handled their report.

Tiziana Scaramuzza, a former Oxford University Ph.D candidate who spoke out against the system while a student, told Insider there's "a culture of impunity" at universities.

The use of NDAs to silence sexual misconduct victims have come under scrutiny in the #MeToo era. They were reportedly a favorite tactic of Harvey Weinstein.

Visit Insider's homepage for more stories.

Universities in the United Kingdom have secretly used a system of non-disclosure agreements to silence students who report sexual assault, according to a new bombshell report from BBC News.

Since 2016, according to the report, schools have paid out more than $1.6 million (£1.3 million) in hush money to at least 300 students to maintain those confidentiality agreements.

BBC News said it obtained the information by sending Freedom of Information requests to almost all of the UK's universities. The numbers it published are "an underestimate," it says. All but two of the 136 universities responded to their requests with "varying degrees of transparency owing to data protection concerns or claims of confidentiality."

"Of these, 45 universities said they had used NDAs but not all of them disclosed full details, meaning it is hard to determine the true scale and this is an underestimate," the BBC reported.

A former student accuses UK universities of using NDAs to avoid addressing real problems

A student at the University of West London told the BBC that after reporting her sexual assault, that college staff members thanked her "for not ruining her alleged attacker's life" and threatened to expel her if she "made a fuss."

"They literally thanked me," the unidentified arts student told BBC News. "I can't believe someone would say that when it happened to me. Not him."

The student also said college faculty members discouraged fellow students from reaching out to her, making her feel isolated. She told BBC News that the college's treatment of her was "worse than the assault itself."

After she filed a formal complaint with the University of West London, the college paid her $1,300 (£1,000) to sign an NDA to remain silent about the terms of their agreement, she said.

University of West London in Ealing. Exterior of building signage. Shutterstock.

Although the University of West London disputed the allegations made by the student, Tiziana Scaramuzza, a former welfare officer at Oriel College at Oxford University told Insider that English universities regularly "mishandle complaints and attempt to silence victims and sweep everything under the carpet."

"There is a culture of impunity and they know that they can get away with mishandling complaints or actively perpetrating wrongdoing and then cover it up," Scaramuzza said.

Scaramuzza said she was previously stifled by her university for speaking out about improving safeguard measures for students. While she was a Ph.D. student at Oriel College in 2013, she was also paid to serve as a welfare officer, where, she said, she repeatedly witnessed the university mishandling reports of sexual assault.

Oriel College in Oxford, UK. Eddie Keogh/Reuters

At the time, Scaramuzza told Insider, she specifically raised concerns that staff members failed to follow standardized suicide prevention procedures and broke the confidentiality of students who came to welfare staff about their problems.

However, instead of addressing the issues she raised, she claims she was dismissed and bullied by her fellow welfare officers and offered a $6,500 (£5,000) settlement to sever ties with the college.

"They want to protect their reputations. Because there is no real accountability in relation to what universities to do, there is no one to check," Scaramuzza said, adding that she believes there should be an external independent body that assesses university complaints and holds academic institutions accountable.

"I think they just don't want to change their systems and they don't want to address the misconduct — they want to keep the status quo," she added.

After her fallout with Oxford, Scaramuzza, now 36, started a project called Do Better Academia to help victims who believe they have been wronged by their university. The Do Better Academia website allows victims to share their stories anonymously and reach out to journalists working on holding academic institutions accountable.

NDAs have long been used to quiet allegations of sexual misconduct

The use of non-disclosure agreements to settle allegations of sexual assault have come under more intense scrutiny in recent years.

NDAs have been weaponized by powerful figures — Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein used the agreements to hide his alleged sexual misconduct, ranging from sexual harassment to rape.

Zelda Perkins, one of Weinstein's former assistants, broke her 19-year NDA with the disgraced media mogul to reveal how they enforced a code of silence.

Zelda Perkins, former personal assistant to Harvey Weinsten, speaks to Parliament's Women and Equalities Committee in London, Britain, March 28, 2018. Parliament TV Handout via REUTERS

"I want to publicly break my non-disclosure agreement," Perkins told the Financial Times in 2017. "Unless somebody does this, there won't be a debate about how egregious these agreements are and the amount of duress that victims are put under."

Perkins claimed Weinstein forced her to be in the room while he bathed, stripped to his underwear and requested her for massages, echoing allegations made by actresses Lupita Nyong'o, Gwyneth Paltrow, and Rose McGowan.

Perkins alleged she was paid around $164,000 in hush money, and that Weinstein and his legal team asked her to name other women she spoke to "as if they too were guilty of something."

Film producer Harvey Weinstein leaves Criminal Court during his sexual assault trial in the Manhattan borough of New York City Reuters

"My entire world fell in because I thought the law was there to protect those who abided by it," Perkins told the Financial Times. "I discovered that it had nothing to do with right and wrong and everything to do with money and power."

Sexual assault advocates have since called to end the practice, saying NDAs prevent sexual predators from being held accountable.

"I believe that universities should be a safe place to live, work, study, and grow — but in fact, they often aren't," Scaramuzza said.