The definitions below are drawn from the National Higher Education Code to Prevent and Respond to Gender-based Violence (National Code) and, where relevant, the National Plan to End Violence against Women and Children 2022–2032. They are provided to support a shared understanding of key concepts and terminology used throughout the National Code and associated implementation resources.
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| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Accredited Specialist | Accredited Specialist means a person who meets the following criteria: a. a psychologist, social worker or counsellor registered or accredited with their relevant industry body; and b. has undertaken formal training in supporting people affected by Gender-based Violence, including Trauma-informed practice; and c. has undertaken training to build competency in working with specific cohorts including First Nations people, culturally and linguistically diverse communities, people with disability and people of diverse sexual orientation and gender identity. |
| Affiliated and Affiliation | have the non-exhaustive meaning ascribed to those terms by the definition of Affiliated Student Accommodation Provider. |
| Affiliated Organisation | means an organisation that uses the Provider’s intellectual property in its name, marketing, recruitment, or governance documents. |
| Affiliated Student Accommodation Provider | means a provider of accommodation to Students that is not a Student Accommodation Provider or Provider, but is nevertheless affiliated with a Provider, including (without limitation) by: (a) any statute, constitution or similar legal instrument that governs or otherwise regulates the Provider; or (b) having a service agreement or other agreement with the Provider; or (c) operating on the Provider’s lands; or (d) being authorised by the Provider to use that Provider’s intellectual property in its recruitment or marketing materials or on its website; or (e) being listed by the Provider on its website as ‘student accommodation’ or being promoted by the Provider in its recruitment or marketing material. |
| Coercive control | Coercive control is often a significant part of a person’s experience of family and domestic violence and describes someone’s use of abusive behaviours against another person over time, with the effect of establishing and maintaining power and dominance over them. Abusive behaviours that perpetrators can use as part of their pattern of abuse include physical abuse (including sexual abuse), monitoring a victim-survivor’s actions, restricting a victim-survivor’s freedom or independence, social abuse, using threats and intimidation, emotional or psychological abuse (including spiritual and religious abuse), financial abuse, sexual coercion, reproductive coercion, lateral violence, systems abuse, technology-facilitated abuse and animal abuse. A focus on coercive control reflects a shift from specific, isolated incidents (of primarily physical violence) to a recognition that individual acts can be used by perpetrators to form a broader pattern of abusive behaviours that reinforce and strengthen the control and dominance of one person over another. |
| Control | means the practical capacity of one entity to determine the outcome of decisions about another entity's financial and operating policies and otherwise has the meaning in section 50AA of the Corporations Act 2001 (Cth). |
| De-identified | has the same meaning as in the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth). |
| Demographic Data | means a person's: (a) sex; (b) gender identity; (c) sexual orientation; (d) year of birth; (e) race / ethnicity; (f) religion; (g) country of birth of person; (h) language/s used at home; (i) requirement for an interpreter; (j) Indigenous status; and (k) disability status. |
| Discloser | means a person who has shared information about their experience of Gender-based Violence. |
| Disclosure | means the provision of information about a person's experience of Gender-based Violence to a Provider by the Discloser or another person. |
| Ethical Bystander | means a person who witnesses an event that is disrespectful or harmful and chooses to intervene in a way that is safe and effective. |
| Evidence-based | Describes models, approaches or practices found to be effective through evaluation or peer reviewed research. Evidence is usually published and may be found in full or summarised in academic research documents, organisational reports, program evaluations, policy papers and submissions. There is a strong evidence base for strategies to prevent gender-based violence. As our understanding of what drives violence against women and children in different population groups and settings increases, the evidence base will continue to evolve. |
| Formal Report | means the provision through formal reporting channels of information about their experience of Gender-based Violence by a Discloser to a Provider, which requires the Provider to consider taking steps beyond the offer and provision of support services, including (without limitation) the commencement of an investigation and/or a disciplinary process in appropriate circumstances. |
| Gender | Refers to the economic, social, political, and cultural attributes and opportunities associated with being women and men. The social definitions of what it means to be a woman or a man vary among cultures and change over time. Gender is a sociocultural expression of particular characteristics and roles that are associated with certain groups of people with reference to their sex and sexuality. Rigid gender roles leave no space for acknowledgement or celebration of gender diversity. |
| Gender-based Violence | means any form of physical or non-physical violence, harassment, abuse or threats, based on gender, that results in, or is likely to result in, harm, coercion, control, fear or deprivation of liberty or autonomy. |
| Gender equality | Involves equality of opportunity and equality of results. It includes both the redistribution of resources and responsibilities between men and women and the transformation of the underlying causes and structures of gender inequality to achieve substantive equality. |
| Gender inequality | A social condition characterised by unequal value afforded to men and women and an unequal distribution of power, resources and opportunity between them. It is the direct result of patriarchal systems that privilege the needs, interests and behaviours of men over women, and that permeate many aspects of Australian society and institutions. |
| Gender Norms | The dominant beliefs and rules of conduct that are determined by a society or social group in relation to the types of roles, interests, behaviours and contributions expected from girls and boys, men and women. Norms are not neutral in their effect but rather create and maintain unequal relations of power. |
| Gender stereotypes | Gender stereotypes are simplistic assumptions and generalisations about the attributes, skills, behaviours, preferences and roles that people should have or demonstrate based on their gender. These attributes are often perceived as natural or innate, but are the result of people of different genders being socialised in different ways. Gender stereotypes are not necessarily negative assumptions or generalisations. |
| Gendered drivers of violence | The underlying causes that are required to create the necessary conditions in which violence against women, children and LGBTIQA+ people occurs. They relate to the particular structures, norms and practices arising from gender inequality in public and private life, but which must always be considered in the context of other forms of social discrimination and disadvantage. |
| Governing Body | means the formally constituted governing body of the Provider for the purposes of the Higher Education Standards Framework made under the Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency Act 2011 (Cth). |
| Higher Education Principal Executive Officer | has the same meaning as in the Ombudsman Act 1976 (Cth). |
| Initial Reporting Date | means 1 January 2026, or for Providers that are registered under the Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency Act 2011 (Cth) after 1 January 2026, the date on which compliance with the Code commences for that Provider. |
| Intersectional approach | In the context of addressing violence against women and children, an intersectional approach recognises that the way women experience gender and inequality can be different based on a range of other cultural, individual, historical, environmental or structural factors including (but not limited to) race, age, geographic location, sexual orientation, ability or class. This approach also recognises that the drivers, dynamics and impacts of violence women experience can be compounded and magnified by their experience of other forms of oppression and inequality, resulting in some groups of women experiencing higher rates and/or more severe forms of violence, or facing barriers to support and safety that other women do not experience. |
| Leadership | means the Higher Education Principal Executive Officer and the Governing Body. |
| Non-disclosure Agreement | means an agreement, including a deed of release or settlement agreement, that requires particular details to be kept confidential as part of reaching a settlement. |
| Non-disparagement Clause | means a clause in an agreement that requires the parties not to say things about each other that are critical, dismissive or disrespectful. |
| Perpetrator | Refers to a person who commits an illegal, criminal or harmful act, including domestic, family or sexual violence |
| Person-centred | means ensuring that the Discloser's needs and preferences are at the centre of decisions made in response to the Disclosure. The response systems, Policies and Procedures affirm the Discloser's dignity and support their healing by genuinely considering their wishes and the impact that decisions may have on them, while at all times ensuring the safety and wellbeing of the Discloser and other Students and Staff. |
| Policies | means a document approved in accordance with a Provider's governance framework, which binds the Provider and its Students and Staff, and includes without limitation statutes, regulations, by-laws, policies, procedures and guidelines. |
| Prevention and Response Plan | means the plan prepared by a Provider in accordance with Standard 1 or the plan prepared by a Student Accommodation Provider / Affiliated Student Accommodation Provider in accordance with Standard 7 and, where the context requires it, means any revised Prevention and Response Plan. |
| Privacy Laws | means the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) and any other privacy laws applicable to a Provider under the laws of the relevant State or Territory. |
| Procedural Fairness | in a decision-making context, means the decision is made in accordance with the rule against bias and the hearing rule (i.e., a Respondent is given an opportunity to present their case with knowledge of any prejudicial material that may be taken into account by the decision-maker). |
| Procedures | means Policies that govern a Provider's response to a Disclosure or Formal Report of Gender-based Violence. |
| Provider | has the same meaning as 'registered higher education provider' under the Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency Act 2011 (Cth). |
| Resident | means a person that resides in Student Accommodation. |
| Respectful relationships | Refers to relationships among intimate, romantic, or dating partners that are characterised by non-violence, equality, mutual respect, consideration and trust. |
| Respondent | means a person whom it is alleged has engaged in conduct that amounts to Gender-based Violence. |
| Secretary | means the Secretary of the Department of Education. |
| Sexual assault | Sexual assault is an act of a sexual nature carried out against a person’s will through the use of physical force, intimidation or coercion, including any attempts to do this. This includes rape, attempted rape, aggravated sexual assault (assault with a weapon), indecent assault, penetration by objects, forced sexual activity that did not end in penetration and attempts to force a person into sexual activity. Note sexual assault occurs when a person is forced, coerced or tricked into sexual acts against their will or without their consent, including when they have withdrawn their consent. |
| Sexual harassment | An unwelcome sexual advance, unwelcome request for sexual favours or other unwelcome conduct of a sexual nature which makes a person feel offended, humiliated and/or intimidated, where a reasonable person would anticipate that reaction in the circumstances. |
| Sexuality | Refers to the component of identity that includes a person’s sexual and emotional attraction to another person. A person may be attracted to men, women, both, neither, and/or to people who are non-binary, or have other gender identities. |
| Social norms | The informal, mostly unwritten and unspoken collective rules that define typical, acceptable, appropriate and obligatory actions in a social group, setting or society. They are produced and reproduced by customs, traditions and value systems that develop over time to uphold forms of social order. |
| Staff | has the same meaning as 'worker' under the Model Work Health and Safety Act. |
| Student | means a person who is enrolled as a student with the Provider or is undertaking a course of study or a unit of study with a Provider. Without limitation, it includes students undertaking higher degrees by research, non-award study, enabling or bridging courses, foundation programs and vocational education and training courses. |
| Student Accommodation | means accommodation offered or provided to a Student by: (a) a Provider directly; (b) a Student Accommodation Provider; or (c) an Affiliated Student Accommodation Provider but in each case does not include any of the following accommodation: (d) accommodation arranged under a homestay program where Students are offered opportunities to live with local families; (e) rental properties that are leased through residential tenancy agreements with a private landlord and are not offered exclusively for accommodation for Students; (f) rental properties that are in premises used for student accommodation and are owned by individual landlords and leased through residential tenancy agreements; or (g) hotels or serviced apartments that are used to provide temporary accommodation for Students. |
| Student Accommodation Provider | means a provider of Student Accommodation that is not itself directly owned, managed and/or operated by a Provider but is nevertheless under the Control of the Provider. |
| Student Accommodation Staff | means pastoral care leader, residential student advisers and equivalents employed or engaged by a Provider, Student Accommodation Provider or Affiliated Student Accommodation Provider, including in a non-paid capacity. |
| Trauma-informed | means an approach that applies the core principles of safety (physical, psychological and emotional), trust, choice, collaboration and empowerment. It should minimise the risk of re-traumatisation and promote recovery and healing to the greatest extent possible. |
| Whole-of-Organisation | means an approach applied across all areas of a Provider’s operations, including any Student Accommodation which it directly owns, operates and/or manages, or the operations of a Student Accommodation Provider or Affiliated Student Accommodation Provider as the context requires it, and at all levels that is evidence-informed, uses multiple strategies and is subject to ongoing monitoring and evaluation, including in respect to: (a) leadership, culture and environment; (b) structures, norms and practices; (c) systems and infrastructure; (d) service delivery, such as curriculum, teaching and learning; (e) Policies and Procedures; (f) management and governance; (g) community engagement; (h) business; (i) research; and (j) partnerships. |
| Working with Children Check | means a working with children or vulnerable people check, registration or clearance, as the case may be, in accordance with the laws of the relevant State or Territory in which the person is employed or otherwise engaged. |