The proposed National Higher Education Code to Prevent and Respond to Gender-based Violence was developed to set standards that higher education providers must meet to effectively prevent and respond to gender-based violence, including in student accommodation.
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In November 2022, a Senate Inquiry into current and proposed sexual consent laws in Australia recognised the failures of universities to prevent and respond to sexual violence on campus and called for the establishment of an independent taskforce with strong powers, to oversight universities’ policies and practices to prevent and respond to sexual violence on campus and in residences.
View the current and proposed sexual consent laws in Australia report.
In July 2023, the Australian Universities Accord Interim Report identified an urgent need to improve student and staff safety in university communities and urged the Australian Government to immediately engage with states and territories as a priority.
Priority Action 5 from the Australian Universities Accord Interim Report recommended the Australian Government immediately commence engagement with the states and territories to strengthen university governance. The Minister for Education established a Working Group of Commonwealth, state and territory officials with responsibility for higher education to lead the development of an Action Plan, based around 3 core themes:
- as an urgent priority, ensuring student and staff safety particularly sexual assault and sexual harassment
- positioning universities as exemplary employers through strengthened responses to workplace rights and
- ensuring contemporary and responsive governance of university councils.
On 23 February 2024, all Education Ministers agreed to and released the Action Plan Addressing Gender-based Violence in Higher Education (the Action Plan). The Action Plan recognises the unique role that higher education providers can and must play in driving the broader social change needed to address gender-based violence.
One of the seven key actions identified in the Action Plan was to introduce a National Higher Education Code to Prevent and Respond to Gender-based Violence.
To develop the proposed National Code, the Department of Education led a comprehensive stakeholder consultation process which included:
- Establishing an Expert Reference Group comprised of victim-survivor advocates, student leaders, staff representatives, subject matter experts, the Higher Education sector and student accommodation providers.
- Undertaking a targeted consultation with key stakeholder groups including higher education providers, students, staff, victim-survivors and their advocates, First Nations people, people with disability, LGBTIQA+ people, culturally and linguistically diverse people and student accommodation providers.
- Consulting with other Commonwealth agencies and State and Territory governments leading work on domestic, family and sexual violence including the Department of Social Services, Office for Women, Attorney-General’s Department, Department of Defence, and the Domestic, Family and Sexual Violence Commission.
Additionally, in May 2024, the Department of Education released an Issues Paper on the development of the proposed National Code via a public consultation process. The Issues Paper detailed the proposed National Code standard and its regulatory framework. Feedback was sought from the public to ensure the proposed National Code would have the desired impact within the higher education sector and the wider community.
In February 2025, the Universities Accord (National Higher Education Code to Prevent and Respond to Gender-based Violence) Bill 2025 (the Bill) was introduced to Parliament and a copy of the proposed National Code was tabled.
On 25 August 2025 the Universities Accord (National Higher Education Code to Prevent and Respond to Gender-based Violence) Bill 2025 (the Bill) passed Parliament.