"It was like they didn't care at all," says a Victoria University student of the institution's response to a sexual harassment complaint.

A Victoria University chemistry tutor who allegedly groped women students and followed them home had a sexual misconduct complaint upheld against him but continued to teach, including instructing dozens of high school students.

Two female students complained in February that a chemistry postgraduate student would run his hands up their legs and back, give them unsolicited massages, make sexual comments, and stalk them.

In return, the university repeatedly offered the women sessions of restorative justice with their harasser.

The women say after declining the offers they heard no more from the university - while their alleged assailant continued to study and teach in its School of Chemical and Physical Sciences.

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This included three intensive days in late June when the tutor - who is alleged to have joked about stripping students naked to wash chemicals off them - worked closely with groups of teenage students visiting Victoria University as part of its outreach programme.

The tutor declined requests to comment.

In a statement, Provost Professor Wendy Larner said the university took allegations of harassment seriously. In response to the serious misconduct decision, "a number of formal measures" had been put in place. "These...were designed to prevent any recurrence by the student of the behaviour at the centre of these allegations."

These included "remedial action," she said, but would not elaborate. She would not say why the tutor was allowed to teach young women following the finding, why his victims still had to study alongside him, or if he was still teaching.

The Victoria University students - who asked not to be identified - and a junior staff member say the university's response was shocking.

"If you are a student you have no power - none whatsoever," said Dr Nick Monahan the post-doctoral fellow who made a formal complaint on the women's behalf.

"At no point did it seem like anyone gave a s... about the students. It seemed more about covering for the university and making sure all the boxes were ticked so they could say they did something."

The university does not have a stand-alone sexual harassment policy. Sexual misconduct is not explicitly listed in its student conduct statute, and has one mention in its staff conduct policy. Neither does it have a clear complaint process or guidelines for students.

'THEY DIDN'T CARE AT ALL'

Sarah and Teri (not their real names), aged 23 and 24, say they repeatedly told the tutor to stop touching them.

They began to hide in Monahan's office until the tutor left the laboratory so they could walk home without him trailing. "I really enjoy lab work, but going through this made me dread going there every day," Teri said.

Monahan reported the multiple incidents of alleged sexual harassment and assault experienced by Sarah, Teri, and a third student to the head of school, Associate Professor Martyn Coles, on their behalf in February 2018.

The women say they were not informed of the complaint's progress or spoken to by any member of the department.

"No-one told us about the decision, if there was any punishment. And then we were just expected to do nothing about it and he was still working in the same lab as us, still teaching students - nothing changed," Sarah said. "It was like they didn't care at all."

The pair met the tutor when he was teaching their undergraduate chemistry course in 2016. His "inappropriate" comments began almost straight away, Sarah said, as he asked the women about their sexual orientation. Later, he joked about having to strip them down and rinse them in the shower if they spilled chemicals.

Initially, they were friendly towards him. But they say his behaviour became more lewd and included unwanted physical contact, such as running his hands up their legs.

"If you were sitting at the computer to analyse data, he'd walk up behind and start massaging your shoulders. If you were working on an experiment you had to constantly monitor it, he would just sit down beside you really close," Sarah said. "He was inescapable, and if you told him to stop touching you he'd laugh, he enjoyed it. It was constant."

Despite their protestations, he began to follow both women on several occasions.

They complained after concluding he would not take no for an answer. "I was like, 'What are you doing? You can't follow me home - stop it' and he said, 'It's not safe for a girl to walk home alone at night, I'm just looking out for you'," Sarah said. "I was like, 'The only threatening thing here is you'."

Monahan said he witnessed some of the tutors' behaviour, including suggestive comments and unsolicited touching that clearly made some women in the department uncomfortable.

Sarah and Teri asked Monahan to write the complaint, fearing they would not be taken seriously.

"We did not feel like we had the seniority, which is why we're grateful to Nick," Teri said. "But there was a new group of women coming into the lab, and I didn't want them to fall prey to him."

Their aim was to have him stop teaching.

After the complaint, a student disputes advisor told Teri there would be a disciplinary hearing and they did not need to attend.

Teri said her further emails and phone calls were ignored. "It's like they didn't want to hear it. ... We went to the people who should have listened. They didn't listen."

Professor Michael Wilson, the pro-vice chancellor of science, told Monahan on February 16 he would send a "substantive email" about his complaint the next week.

Four months later, on June 18, following further queries from Monahan, Wilson said there had been a formal process and wrongdoing was found to have occurred. He would not say what interventions the tutor had faced, citing privacy reasons.

In the university's student conduct statute, penalties for serious general misconduct include exclusion from enrolment in classes; termination of enrolment in a thesis; and losing access to the university.