Next year’s freshers cohort will be offered the chance to attend a consent and respect talk as part of the safety talk during freshers week.

The talk will be given by the current women’s officers, Mia Shantana Chaudhuri-Julyan and Lucy Elizabeth Robinson, and the aim is to have all future talks run by the women’s officers.

It was initially believed that the talks would be compulsory to attend, as a statement released by the women's officers stated that "from September there will officially be a compulsory (enforced by a fine) consent and respect talk which will be a segment that is part of the safety talk for freshers and new postgrads (formerly known as the fire safety talks)," but this has since been confirmed by the University to be false.

Only the fire safety segment of the talk is compulsory, and attendees can leave before the latter part containing the consent and respect talk without incurring a fine.

The women’s officers have further described the policy as an “amazingly positive step forward for York” and thanked the officers and staff members who helped organise the change.

Although only first year undergraduates and new postgraduates have to attend the safety talk, the officers are developing a website version of the talk that will be available to all students.

They also announced that they were developing an online reporting system for sexual assault that could be used anonymously if need be.

YUSU Community and Well-being Officer Scott Dawson said: “I welcome the amazing work that the Women's Officers are doing. They have been elected to provide these talks and they have been in consultation with students, colleges and the University to achieve this."

Second year Business Finance student Ben Froughi criticised the new policy, saying: “I doubt that a consent class has ever managed to prevent a single rape. No student arrives at a university not knowing if forcing someone to have sex is acceptable or not."

University spokesperson Alistair Keely defended the decision to introduce the classes.

“The University has agreed to support the Students' Union's request to incorporate gender-neutral sexual consent briefings for all new students as an aspect of the health and personal safety induction we give at the start of the academic year," he said.

​“The aim is to help raise awareness and to help reduce the likelihood of harassment. Many other universities have undertaken similar information sessions and we believe they will compl​ement other initiatives across campus.

“We will also continue to collaborate with city-wide initiatives in the area of health and personal safety so that York students are well informed and ​enjoy a safe experience."

Update: The university has told York Vision non-attendence of the fire safety talk, not the consent talk, is sanctioned with a fine. However, the talks occur during the same induction event.