A 2015 survey of students at 27 schools, commissioned by the Association of American Universities, found that nearly one in four women had complained of sexual assault or sexual misconduct. Advocates for victims seized on the study, but as with similar reports, it was criticized by some for overstating the problem, and even its authors acknowledged that it had limitations.

Though Ms. DeVos said she believed that accused students were often mistreated, she also said that victims were being ill-served by a quasi-judicial process that lacked the sophistication required for such sensitive matters.

Ms. DeVos repeatedly used the term “survivors,” a term often preferred by victims when speaking of sexual assault. And she also vowed that colleges would not return to the days when sexual assault complaints were ignored.

“One rape is one too many,” she said. “One assault is one too many. One aggressive act of harassment is one too many.”

But her remarks focused more heavily on the young men who, she said, were denied due process in campus proceedings, sometimes attempting suicide.

She referred to campus sexual misconduct hearings as “kangaroo courts” that forced administrators to act as “judge and jury.” Referring to scores of lawsuits filed by punished students, she said: “Survivors aren’t well served when they are re-traumatized with appeal after appeal because the failed system failed the accused. And no student should be forced to sue their way to due process.”

She suggested that colleges had gone too far in other types of cases, too. In the speech, Ms. DeVos referred to a case at the University of Southern California in which the football team’s kicker, Matt Boermeester, was suspended from school and kicked off the squad after being investigated for physically assaulting his girlfriend. The girlfriend later spoke out in defense of Mr. Boermeester, saying no assault had happened.